Star to Use, but Not Tout, Carcinogen-Lowering ProcessStar Scientific next month will be among the first tobacco companies to offer cigarettes with reduced carcinogens at retail when it begins phasing into its four discount brands--Gunsmoke, Vegas, Main Street and Sport--tobacco processed through a patented two-step curing process that reduces nitrosamines, the most abundant and powerful carcinogen in tobacco and tobacco smoke. Within three years, every cigarette from the Petersburg, Va., manufacturer will contain the specially cured tobacco, and major player Brown & Williamson has contracted to use Star-cured tobacco in some of its cigarettes.Trade sources said Star''s move anticipates what is regarded by some as the inevitable move in Washington to put regulation of the industry under the Food and Drug Administration. The expectation is that, just as labels tell consumers how many grams of polyunsaturated fat are in a bowl of cereal, smokers someday will see cigarette packaging disclosing the quantity of toxins in their favorite brands. However, Star will not flag these changes in packaging or ads until more science is available to convince the FDA and Federal Trade Commission about the benefits.

"We''re being very careful about not rushing the scientific development," said evp and chief counsel Paul Perito. "We''re looking at the issue of proving that reduced exposure to toxin equals reduced risk. In the meantime, we''re very conservative and are recommending that other companies refrain from making health claims."Brown & Williamson contracted to buy 1.5 million pounds of the Star-cured tobacco, about half the expected harvest from this year''s growing season, ending in October. The No. 3 producer of Kool, Capri, Misty and GPC will have low-nitrosamine cigarettes on the market within a year. Other firms are buying smaller amounts, while R.J. Reynolds is field-testing its own process for reducing tobacco toxins. Separately, Star this month will debut activated charcoal filters on all its brands.The focus on nitrosamines comes amid legislation pending in Canada proposing to add more information on labeling about tobacco''s toxic constituents and specific warnings about nitrosamines being the most active cancer-causing agent in cigarettes. Also, a World Health Organization gathering in May recommended that cigarette brands unable to conform to a standard ceiling of nitrosamine content should be excluded from markets.

To be sure, the merchandising contracts are not pushing minor brands out of stores completely. Retailers have found that some deep-discount brands offer attractive margins compared with the big boys. But for the smaller players, getting their products into the store can be an uphill climb."The big manufacturers make the contract requirements difficult for retailers to understand so they don''t know what is allowed," said Keith Grover, marketing manager for Sante Fe Natural Tobacco, maker of Natural American Spirit cigarettes. "We try to understand those programs and explain to retailers that, for instance, temporary price tags on the rack are permissible. But there''s a lot of ignorance about merchandising programs and retailers are unable to make an objective decision about profitability. Many times they don''t believe us."In a more recent development, the big tobacco companies have been pushing their merchandising away from tobacco-only outlets and toward c-stores, where price is secondary to availability for customers already used to paying a premium for other purchases, per a recent Convenience Store News survey.

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