Cigarette Companies Encouraged to Stop Alleged False Advertising

Cigarettes are neither healthy nor eco-friendly, despite what advertising campaigns may claim.

The Reynolds American tobacco company has relaunched their magazine advertisements for their acclaimed “eco-friendly” Natural American Spirit cigarettes and have targeted women, choosing to run the ads in the pages of Elle, Lucky and Marie Claire.

The ad campaign is both deceptive and dangerous, according to the Washington D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), which has called upon Reynolds American to stop what CTFK calls false advertising.

More than 400,000 U.S. deaths are attributed to smoking each year, and more than 7,000 chemicals -- several hundred of them toxic -- are emitted into the environment through cigarette smoke, according to the CTFK.

On a global scale, at least 5.6 trillion cigarettes are discarded into the environment annually, according to researchers in an issue of Tobacco Control funded by Legacy, published earlier 2011.

The Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup says it picked up more than two million discarded cigarettes in 2010.

The company that manufactures North American cigarettes, the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, has faced numerous counts of legal action by government agencies. As of 2010, Santa Fe is required to add a disclaimer stating, “Organic tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette.”