A Study Suggest Consumers Are Confused About Marlboro Lights

From the Belleville News-Democrat: "Marlboro Light study backs suit winners," by Brian Brueggemann--

A new survey suggesting that few smokers of Marlboro Lights know they're just as toxic as regular Marlboro cigarettes bolsters the argument that smokers have been defrauded, an anti-smoking group said Thursday.

Only 13 percent of Marlboro Lights smokers interviewed by researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo were able to state correctly that a Marlboro Light smoker gets the same amount of tar and nicotine from one light cigarette as from one regular cigarette, said K. Michael Cummings, the lead researcher for the study.

. . . Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron last year issued a $10.1 billion verdict in a class-action lawsuit against Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro Lights, for marketing the brand to Illinoisans as a healthier alternative to full-flavored cigarettes. The company's appeal is pending before the Illinois Supreme Court.