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Cigarette Filters - Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Risks

There is a well-known link between tobacco and lung cancer, and a well-known link between asbestos and mesothelioma. When you combine the two, however, the risks of developing either of the two diseases increases astronomically. The risk of a smoker who was exposed to asbestos developing mesothelioma is exponentially higher than the risk for a non-smoker. Yet for a period of time in the 1950s, at least one cigarette company used asbestos in its cigarette filters, exposing millions to an exponentially increased risk of developing lung cancer and mesothelioma.

In the early 1950s, from 1952 to at least 1957, the P. Lorillard Tobacco Company manufactured their Kent cigarettes with 10mgs of crocidolite asbestos in each filter. Over 13 billion asbestos laced cigarettes were sold during those five years, increasing the risk for millions of people who believed Lorillard's ads that they were smoking the safest, healthiest cigarette ever made. According to one study, those who smoked those "healthy" cigarettes may have inhaled an average of 131 million crocidolite asbestos fibers each year. To add insult to the injury that they perpetrated on the American smoking public, the asbestos that they chose, crocidolite, is the form that is most dangerous when inhaled.

In 1954, the Lorillard Company ordered its own electron microscope tests to determine whether smokers were inhaling asbestos fibers from their patented Micronite filters. The tests showed that Kent smokers were being exposed to asbestos. Despite the confirmation and the knowledge that asbestos caused serious lung diseases, Lorillard continued to sell Kent cigarettes for another 18 months - another 4 billion asbestos-filtered cigarettes - before finally removing asbestos from their Micronite filters in early 1957. They even went so far as to advertise their cigarettes with full page ads in the Journal of American Medicine with the tag line of "offers the greatest health protection in the history of cigarettes".

It wasn't only those who smoked Kent cigarettes who were affected, however. In a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in 1989, researchers reported that a group of 33 cigarette factory workers who had manufactured the filters with crocidolite asbestos showed statistically significant higher rates of death from lung cancer, mesothelioma and non-malignant lung diseases than expected. In fact, in a group where the expected number of deaths was eight, twenty-eight of the men who had worked in the filter making factory had died, most of them from lung-related illnesses.

In addition to Kent's Micronite filter, asbestos has also been used in other tobacco products. It was often used in cigarette papers to slow burning, and mixed with pipe tobaccos for the same reason.

If you smoked Kent cigarettes during the 1950s and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer or another asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to sue the company for its blatant disregard of your health and safety. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos related condition after exposure to asbestos, whether or not you smoked, you may have legal recourses available to you. A lawyer who is experienced in mesothelioma and asbestos litigation will be able to evaluate your case and let you know if you are entitled to recover damages and medical expenses from one or more of the companies that put your health at risk and exposed you to a deadly hazard.

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