Vermont Sues R.J. Reynolds Over Cigarette Ad Claims

The state of Vermont on Tuesday sued R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., accusing the nation’s second-largest cigarette maker of misleading the public with unsubstantiated claims that its Eclipse brand of cigarettes might carry less risk of cancer and other health ailments.

Backed by a coalition of states, including California, the suit targets a product that aims to deliver smokers the taste of tobacco without actually burning it. Vermont Atty. Gen. William H. Sorrell asked a state court in Burlington, Vt., to bar Reynolds from making what he said were misleading advertising claims.

Reynolds, a unit of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American Inc., said it would fight the suit and could substantiate its claims that Eclipse delivered far less cancer-causing tar than conventional brands.

Eclipse smokers do not ignite tobacco. Instead, they light a carbon tip that heats air that passes over tobacco in a cylinder that looks like a standard cigarette. The flavors of tobacco and nicotine are inhaled by the smoker.

Reynolds said smokers’ risk of contracting cancer, chronic bronchitis and possibly emphysema were reduced because of how Eclipse cigarettes worked.

But Vermont said in the suit that there was no proof to support that claim or others by Reynolds, including that Eclipse was the best choice for smokers worried about their health, short of quitting cigarettes altogether.

Charles Blixt, executive vice president and general counsel for Reynolds, said the company had performed scientific research “that backs up every single claim that we’ve made.”

Blixt said that although cigarette makers had been accused of not doing enough to develop and promote safer cigarettes, Reynolds was getting the opposite message in this case.

“If you can’t tell the consumer what you know” about the potential benefits, “you can’t give them an incentive to smoke them,” Blixt said. “It’s a real Catch-22.”

Vermont’s suit has the support of eight other states and the District of Columbia. A spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said Lockyer planned to assign lawyers to assist Vermont in pretrial work, in hopes the case would lead to a nationwide settlement between RJR and all of the states.

If that doesn’t work, California will consider filing its own case, spokesman Tom Dresslar said.

Associated Press and Bloomberg News were used in compiling this report.