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What is obviously needed is a single, standard test for all cigarettes that will blow away the smoke screen of conflicting claims. To develop one, the Federal Trade Commission recently sent unbranded cigarette samples to six cigarette companies and four independent laboratories, asked them to use a test similar to the American Tobacco method that measures "total solids." Preliminary results vary about 5% from lab to lab, and much work needs to be done. The FTC hopes to iron out the difficulties within the next six months. But before it can enforce a standard test, it must win permission from the courts or Congress.
Congressman Blatnik has introduced such a bill. He not only wants a standard test but also wants results published in much the same fashion as food companies list ingredients on their labels. Tobaccomen may be reluctant to scrap their own systems. But the idea will get plenty of support from U.S. smokers, who want to know which brands give them, as P. Lorillard & Co.'s President Lewis Gruber says, "less of the things they have been smoking filters to get less of."