• 6/20/2007
  • Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  • Susan Lazaruk
  • Edmonton Journal (www.canada.com/edmontonjournal)

The state of Vermont is asking the B.C. courts to compel two University of British Columbia professors to testify in a lawsuit the state has launched against cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds and its claims of a safer “smokeless” cigarette.

Dr. James Hogg and Dr. Stephan van Eeden have refused to voluntarily disclose the results of their 1990s research into Eclipse cigarettes to state prosecutors suing R.J. Reynolds for fraudulent advertising in the marketing of a cigarette that heats but doesn’t burn tobacco.

Reynolds promotes Eclipse as the “better way to smoke” and the U.S. ads say they “may present less risk of cancer, bronchitis and possibly emphysema,” and “produce less inflammation in the respiratory system.”

It also claims: “The toxicity of its smoke is dramatically reduced,” and the results backing the claims “have been presented at scientific meetings or published in scientific journals.”

R.J. Reynolds cites a research article called: “A Safer Cigarette? A Comparative Study. A Consensus Report”, which was published in 2000 in the journal Inhalation Toxicology and written by co-principal investigators Hogg and van Eeden.

The study, conducted at five medical centres, including UBC, was funded by R.J. Reynolds.

State prosecutors said the article misrepresents the results, which haven’t been published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.

The state wants the two doctors to testify because they allegedly have relevant evidence as to whether switching to Eclipse does, as R.J. Reynolds claims, present smokers with the “next best choice” to quitting.

Hogg and van Eeden at first agreed to make a disposition for the lawsuit, but after consulting lawyers, changed their minds.

They said the studies, done 10 years ago before their laboratory was renovated and relocated, would be difficult to find and they don’t have the time to search for requested documents.

They also noted major respiratory journals didn’t publish research funded by tobacco companies in the late 1990s and therefore the research didn’t go through the “rigorous peer-review process.”

“As scientists, we cannot provide you with these data or results to be potentially used as evidence,” wrote the two doctors.

Hogg’s voice mail said he was out of the country until later this month. E-mail messages left for both were not returned.