“A New Cigarette Filter…
made of asbestos”

Attorney Nathan Schachtman discusses asbestos and its bizarre use by the P. Lorillard Tobacco Company in the quest for a safer cigarette

In 1952, using the popular new medium of television, the P. Lorillard Tobacco Company sponsored “scientific” demonstrations to show the efficacy and implied health benefits of its KENT Micronite filter. The campaign also featured advertisements in medical journals. Although the ads did not disclose the composition of “Micronite,” the material that Lorillard touted as “so safe, so effective it has been selected to help filter the air in hospital operating rooms” and that was used “to purify the air in atomic energy plants of microscopic impurities” was asbestos. This exhibition features a display of the KENT Micronite filter created in 2005 for the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society by asbestos expert Anthony G. Rich.

Also, Dr. Alan Blum interviews attorney Nathan Schachtman, whose 35-year law practice has focused on the defense of product liability suits, with an emphasis on the scientific aspects of exposures to toxic substances from products and environmental sources. He has also taught a course at the Columbia Law School on probability and statistics in the law.

The Micronite Filter

Display created for the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society by Anthony Rich showing the crocidolite asbestos in the opened Micronite filter of a KENT cigarette from 1953

2005

From 1952 to 1957 the P. Lorillard Company heavily advertised the effectiveness of the Micronite filter on its KENT cigarette brand in capturing the burned tobacco particulate matter known as “tar.” According to asbestos expert Anthony Rich, 15% to 25% of the contents of the Micronite filter was crocidolite asbestos, also called blue asbestos, which was not regulated for this use by the U.S. government. Inhalation of crocidolite asbestos is known to cause cancers of the respiratory system at rates far higher than any of the other four forms of this group of naturally occurring fibrous minerals known as the amphibole mineral family. Chrysotile, the only form of asbestos in the serpentine mineral family, comprises 90 to 95 percent of the asbestos used in insulation, roofing, and fireproofing products in buildings in the United States; it is also used in automobile brake linings, cement, and asphalt. In 1957, Lorillard changed the Micronite filter with crocidolite asbestos to one made of cellulose acetate, synthetic fiber derived from cotton or tree pulp.

“Smokers: Here’s proof you can see…KENT gives greater protection than any other cigarette”

Magazine advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes

Circa 1953

“Your voice of wisdom says SMOKE KENT, Your voice of pleasure says ENJOY KENT”

Magazine advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes

Circa 1953

“You are about to see something vital to 1 out of 3 smokers!”

Magazine advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes

Circa 1953

“Why do these stains mean so much to 1 out of every 3 smokers?”

Advertisement for P. Lorillard Company’s KENT cigarettes
LIFE Magazine

January 25, 1954

“Now! New KENT with ‘Micronite’ Filter!”

Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes
The Saturday Evening Post

May 30, 1953

“You are about to see something vital to 1 out of 3 smokers!”

Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes
The Saturday Evening Post

November 21, 1953

“Smokers: Here’s proof you can see: KENT gives greater protection than any other cigarette”

Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes
Collier’s Magazine

March 5, 1954

“Take a puff and smile”

Television commercial for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes, featuring actor Dick Van Dyke

1965

“Which of the top ten filter brands do you think you should smoke?”

Television commercial for P. Lorillard Company’s KENT cigarettes, featuring actor Dick Van Dyke

1965

“Famous Micronite Filter”

Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes

MD Magazine

March, 1960

“The American Medical Association voluntarily conducted in their own laboratory a series of independent tests of filters and filter cigarettes…”

Magazine and newspaper (eg, Newsday [Long Island, New York]) advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes

1954

“Which of the top 10 filter brands do you think you should smoke?”

Magazine Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes

1963

“Physiological test compares Kent’s ‘Micronite ‘ Filter with other cigarette filters” (3 pages)

Cover with table of contents; Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes; Index to Advertisers
The New England Journal of Medicine

December 17, 1953

“Some questions about filter cigarettes that may have occurred to you, Doctor…and their answers by the makers of Kent” (3 pages)

Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes; Cover; Index to Advertisers
The New England Journal of Medicine

September 17, 1953

“Index to Advertisers” listing “P. Lorillard Tobacco Co. (Kent Cigarettes)” (3 pages)

Advertisement for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes (“How the greater efficacy of Kent’s Micronite Filter is verified”); Cover
The New England Journal of Medicine

November 19, 1953

A case report entitled, “Asbestosis following brief exposure in cigarette filter manufacture,” published in Respiration in 1972 by two members of the Thoracic Services division at Boston University Medical School, described a 47-year old man who had been exposed to asbestos dust for nine months in 1953 while working in a factory that manufactured cigarette filters containing Cape Blue asbestos, also known as crocidolite asbestos.

“When ‘More Doctors Smoked Camels’: Cigarette Advertising in the [New York State] Journal [of Medicine]” (6 pages)

Article by Alan Blum, MD and Jessica Rosenberg
which discusses advertisements in 1954 in the New York State Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association for the KENT Micronite Filter.
New York State Journal of Medicine

December 1983

“Former Smoker Wins $2 Million in Lawsuit Over Cigarette Filter”

Article by Associated Press
The New York Times

September 1, 1995

“Asbestosis Following Brief Exposure in a Cigarette Filter Manufacture” (11 pages)

Article by Drs. Anne M. Goff and E. A. Gaensler
in Respiration
Volume 29, pages 83-93, 1972

“This was a case report of asbestosis in a worker at an East Walpole, Massachusetts company, Hollingsworth & Vose Company, which manufactured the Micronite filter for P. Lorillard Tobacco Company’s KENT cigarettes. The individual had had short duration exposure to crocidolite asbestos. This speaks to what must have been very heavy exposure at the factory plus the greater pathogenicity of crocidolite asbestos. Co-author Ed Gaensler was one of the smartest, most capable experts I’ve had the privilege to work with and learn from. Although trained as a surgeon, he could read chest x-rays and CT scans better than most radiologists or pulmonary physicians, and he also could report an epidemiologic study as well as, if not better than, most epidemiologists of that era. He was a remarkable physician and scientist.”

–Attorney Nathan Schachtman, whose 35-year law practice has focused on the defense of product liability suits, with an emphasis on the scientific aspects of exposures to toxic substances from products and environmental sources. He has also taught a course at the Columbia Law School on probability and statistics in the law.

“Asbestos burden in two cases of mesothelioma where the work history included manufacturing of cigarette filters” (11 pages)

Article by Ronald F. Dodson, Marion G. Willams, and Joseph D. Satterley
in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health

2002;65:1109-1120

“Big Tobacco on trial again in New York”

Article in The Atlanta Journal Constitution

December 5, 2000

“Some Asbestos Grace”

Editorial in The Wall Street Journal

March 8, 2008

“In a Twist, Asbestos Suit Targets College”

Article by Kris Maher
The Wall Street Journal

March 18, 2020

Illustrated story of the KENT Micronite filter display by Anthony G. Rich (8 pages)

2005

Correspondence between Anthony G. Rich and Alan Blum, M

2005-2006

Elements of Asbestos

Interview with Nathan Schachtman Part I
August 14, 2020

Lorillard’s KENT Micronite Filter with Asbestos

Interview with Nathan Schachtman Part II
August 14, 2020

Disease and Litigation

Interview with Nathan Schachtman Part III
August 14, 2020

Epilogue…or Prologue?

Although the story of the KENT Micronite filter story has been told before, such as in the first theme issue on the world cigarette pandemic published by the New York State Journal of Medicine in December 1983, this is the first exhibition about it. 70 years after P. Lorillard Tobacco Company created and introduced it, the asbestos filter sounds insane. But just as ridiculous is that today 99% of cigarettes have filters, even though no cigarette filter reduces the risk of cancer, emphysema, or heart disease. This is because the smoker inhales more deeply to get the smoke through the filter and thus is exposed to greater concentrations of toxic gases and other chemicals. Ultimately, then, promoting the misinformation that putting a filter on a cigarette would protect the smoker from lung cancer succeeded in allaying consumers’ anxiety. The myth that filtered cigarettes are “safer” than non-filtered cigarettes is a forerunner to recent hoaxes such as that Covid-19 vaccines contain microchips that control your DNA or that ivermectin cures Covid-19. Dr. Tom Novotny and I chose to collaborate on an effort to communicate to the public and health professionals alike about what we call “the filter fraud” because he had been addressing the environmental impact of the non-biodegradable filters while I had been trying to expose the false promise of the “safer cigarette.” We figured that if the public hasn’t gotten the message that the filter doesn’t make smoking any less lethal, then perhaps the public will show concern for the birds and fish that eat and get poisoned by discarded cigarette butts! These last three bonus sections provide a fuller picture of The Filter Fraud.

Alan Blum, MD
Director, The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
April 2, 2023

“How a Cigarette Is Engineered” (2 pages)

FDA Center for Tobacco Products information sheet that illustrates the gimmicks and deceptions by cigarette manufacturers

2016

The Filter Fraud

A Filter Made of Tobacco Itself

Filter Infographic

A New Cigarette Filter…made of asbestos

Curated by Alan Blum, MD

Professor and Endowed Chair in Family Medicine
Director, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
College of Community Health Sciences
The University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa

Designed by Bryce Callahan*
and Kevin Bailey, MA**

*Undergraduate student majoring in computer engineering
The University of Alabama

**Collections Manager and Digital Archivist (2019-2022)
Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
College of Community Health Sciences
The University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa

“A New Cigarette Filter… made of asbestos”

Epilogue…or Prologue?

A New Cigarette Filter…made of asbestos

Curated by Alan Blum, MD

Designed by Bryce Callahan* and Kevin Bailey, MA**

“A New Cigarette Filter…
made of asbestos”

Designed by Bryce Callahan*
and Kevin Bailey, MA**