> Asbestos Exposure > Asbestos Products > Cigarette Filters

Cigarette Filters

In the 1950s, cigarette filters were first introduced as a way to help decrease the amount of smoke and tar inhaled when smoking. At the time, health concerns surrounding cigarettes and tobacco were still largely misunderstood, but some companies began producing filters for use in cigarettes with claims that the new filtered products could prevent dry throat and other uncomfortable reactions to cigarette tar and smoke.

Asbestos Cigarette Filter Manufacturers

Most cigarette filters were made of absorbent cotton, cellulose acetate fibers and crepe paper, but in 1951, the Lorillard Tobacco Company introduced a revolutionary product, said to contain a secret filtering material that could trap particles as small as one micron. The secret material—now known to be asbestos—had previously been used by the United States Army during World War II to provide filtration in gas masks and atomic energy plants.

Lorillard's new product, named "Micronite," was widely used in the company's Kent cigarettes from 1951 until 1956. In fact, from 1952 to 1956, an estimated 13 billion Kent Micronite filtered cigarettes were sold in the U.S. The new cigarette filters were touted as "the greatest health protection in cigarette history" in advertisements claiming that Micronite was a "pure, dust-free, completely harmless material," perfect for smokers who were unusually sensitive to tars and nicotine.

However, medical experts have since identified the "completely harmless" secret ingredient used in Kent Micronite cigarettes as crocidolite asbestos (also called "African blue" asbestos), a known carcinogen which some experts believe is the most hazardous of the six types of asbestos. Kent Micronite filters contained as much as 30 percent crocidolite asbestos, which when inhaled, can lodge in the lungs and lead to the development of lung inflammation, lung cancer, asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma. Researchers estimate that people who smoked one pack per day of Kent Micronite filtered cigarettes would have inhaled 131 million crocidolite asbestos fibers each year.

Potential Hazards of Asbestos Cigarette Filters

Many individuals who used asbestos-containing cigarette filters and those who worked in factories producing the asbestos-containing filters have since experienced health complications as a result of asbestos exposure.

A 1989 survey of 33 people who worked in a Massachusetts cigarette filter factory between 1951 and 1957 found that almost 20 had died from asbestos-related diseases.

Researchers have determined that even short exposure (a few months) to high quantities of crocidolite asbestos can lead to major health complications and even death.

Factories that produced asbestos cigarettes and cigarette filters were particularly dangerous for asbestos exposure. The factories were often dusty and dry, with workers often having to cut open and handle large burlap bags full of crocidolite asbestos fibers which could easily be inhaled or ingested when airborne.

Individuals at risk for asbestos exposure related to cigarette filters include:

• Consumers who smoked Kent cigarettes from 1952 to 1956
• Workers employed at the Lorillard Tobacco Company factories in Jersey City, NJ, or Louisville
• Those who worked at Hollinsworth & Vose Company (also called H&V Specialties) in West Groton or Rochdale, Massachusetts