Quick Facts About Asbestos Cigarette Filters
Years Produced:

Years Produced:

1952 – 1956

Places Used:

Places Used:

Kent Micronite Cigarettes

Toxicity:

Toxicity:

High

Asbestos Use Banned:

Asbestos Use Banned:

Yes

Friable:

Friable:

Yes

What Types of Cigarette Filters Contain Asbestos?

Kent cigarette packet

In 1952, the Lorillard Tobacco Company launched its Kent Micronite brand of filtered cigarettes. Each Micronite filter contained about 15% to 30% asbestos. These filters used compressed crocidolite (blue asbestos) fibers blended with cotton and acetate inside crimped crepe paper.

Crocidolite is a kind of asbestos with shorter, thinner and more brittle fibers than chrysotile asbestos, the type used in most asbestos products. No type of asbestos is safe, but because crocidolite fibers are so fine and needle-like, they’re potentially even more hazardous than chrysotile. Of the 6 commercial types of asbestos, crocidolite is generally considered the most hazardous.

The company stopped making Kent Micronite filters in 1956, with some remaining stock staying on shelves until 1957, but not because of any concern over its customers’ health. Smokers didn’t care for the taste of the cigarettes and complained that the filter made inhaling too difficult. In fact, even though the company learned that asbestos particles were leaking into the cigarettes’ smoke in 1954, it didn’t tell the public until nearly 2 years (and 4 billion cigarettes sold) later. Kent cigarettes sold over 13 billion asbestos-filtered cigarettes over 4 years (1952-1956).

Companies That Made Asbestos Cigarette Filters

Kent micronite filter showing asbestos fibers
Kent Micronite filters contained blue crocidolite asbestos.

Even though several asbestos manufacturers considered developing asbestos cigarette filters, Reynolds Metal Co. filed a patent for a similar product. Reynolds Metals was a major metals and aluminum foil manufacturer that was focusing its research on using aluminum silicate and silicate fibers to filter and cool cigarette smoke. However, only 1 company actually took the idea to market: The Lorillard Tobacco Company.

Another manufacturer, Hollingsworth & Vose Company, produced the asbestos filters that Lorillard used for its Kent Micronite brand. The manufacturing process was especially hazardous to plant employees because it involved mixing dry asbestos with other fibers. This filled the work environment with airborne asbestos dust.

In 2015, tobacco giant Reynolds American Inc., officially acquired Lorillard. As a result, its long-standing subsidiary, RJR Tobacco, was responsible for all asbestos lawsuits connected to Lorillard’s Kent cigarettes. Today, these companies are owned by British American Tobacco, which also manages brands like Camel, Newport and Kodiak. Legal liability remains active, and patients or surviving family members can still seek compensation for medical costs, pain and suffering and other damages.

Health Risks of Asbestos in Cigarette Filters

Any exposure to asbestos in cigarette filters significantly increases the risk of developing life-threatening respiratory illnesses, including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. Asbestos is the primary cause of pleural mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer.

Asbestos fibers traveled from the cigarette filter into smokers’ lungs with every puff. Even worse, Micronite cigarettes required a “deep draw,” so smokers had to inhale especially hard. This means the dangerous smoke traveled deep into the person’s lung tissue.

Illnesses Linked to Asbestos Cigarette Filters

Smokers who inhaled asbestos fibers are 50 to 90 times more likely to develop lung cancer. In fact, the risk of developing lung cancer from asbestos exposure and cigarette smoking together is exponentially higher than other types of exposure. This “synergistic” effect doesn’t increase your risk of mesothelioma, however.

An internal memo from asbestos company Union Carbide‘s associate medical director shows that, even in the 1970s, industry experts knew how dangerous it was to combine asbestos and other toxins from cigarettes. But Dr. Carl Dernehl, the company’s former toxicologist, tried to focus on cigarette smoking as the primary cause of cancer, not asbestos exposure in this statement: “It has been demonstrated that asbestos workers in the United States apparently do not develop cancer of the lung unless they also smoke cigarettes. So you have here a situation in which an individual is exposed to asbestos and cigarette smoke at the same time. The implications for developing cancer of the lung are obvious.”

How Asbestos Exposure Increases Lung Cancer Risk

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Dr. Jacques Fontaine: How Asbestos Exposure Increases Lung Cancer Risk

Lung cancer is not the most common cancer in men and women. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. However, lung cancer kills more men and women than breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer combined. Lung cancer is the highest mortality cancer in the United States. And we think that lung cancer is only related to smoking, to cigarette use. But in fact, asbestos exposure increases your risk of lung cancer fifty fold times more than with just cigarette smoking. So if you have been exposed significantly to asbestos and you’re a smoker, your chance of getting lung cancer are fifty times more than if you were just a smoker. Asbestos exposure causes more lung cancer in the United States than mesothelioma. So people have this preconceived notion that asbestos exposure can only put you at risk for mesothelioma. Asbestos exposure puts you at increased risk for mesothelioma, but more often lung cancer, esophagus cancer, ovarian cancer.

Who Is at Risk From Asbestos Cigarette Filters?

Anyone who smoked Kent Micronite cigarettes between 1952 and 1956 was exposed to asbestos. One study published in Cancer research revealed that smoking a pack of Kent Micronite cigarettes every day for a year would expose a smoker to 131 million carcinogenic crocidolite fibers. The study only analyzed the amount contained in 2 puffs per cigarette, so the actual amount of asbestos the average smoker inhaled was likely much greater.

Like conventional cigarettes, Kent Micronite asbestos cigarette filters also caused secondary exposure. Secondhand smoke contained asbestos particles that put spouses, children, friends, co-workers and even strangers at risk. Factory workers could unknowingly bring asbestos dust home on their clothing, exposing family members to the toxic fibers. Asbestos dust adheres aggressively to clothing, skin and hair.

People at Risk of Asbestos Exposure From Cigarette Filters

  • Consumers who smoked Kent cigarettes between 1952 and 1956
  • Contractors who performed work in contaminated areas, such as plumbers and electricians
  • Workers and contractors employed at H&V in West Groton, East Walpole or Rochdale, Massachusetts
  • Workers and contractors employed at the Lorillard Tobacco Company factories in Jersey City, New Jersey, or Louisville, Kentucky

H&V factory workers who produced Micronite filters suffered the worst asbestos exposure because they labored in constantly contaminated conditions, often cutting open and handling large burlap bags of raw crocidolite asbestos fibers. A study of 33 laborers from the H&V filter factory found 28 of the workers later died from asbestos-related diseases, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Kent manufacturing plant workers who directly handled Micronite filters were at a high risk of asbestos exposure, but they weren’t the only employees impacted. Asbestos in the air could easily affect supervisors, maintenance personnel, equipment technicians and others. According to court records, more than 34 former Lorillard employees working at the company’s New Jersey and Kentucky factories eventually developed mesothelioma.

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Compensation for Exposure to Asbestos in Cigarette Filters

Experienced mesothelioma lawyers have helped many patients file legal claims in asbestos product liability cases. Compensation can help cover medical bills, treatment and ongoing care.

Some jury verdicts in asbestos filter cases have also provided awards for pain and suffering. If asbestos exposure at work led to the death of a loved one, you may still be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit. 

Notable Asbestos Cigarette Filter Lawsuits and Settlements

  • $8,000,000: In 2018, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of Richard DeLisle, a U.S. Veteran who smoked Kent Micronite cigarettes for years. The jury verdict held Lorillard 22% responsible and H&V 22% responsible for DeLisle’s mesothelioma.
  • $3,750,000: In 2017, a California appeals court sided with Tajie Major against Lorillard and other tobacco companies in a wrongful death claim. William Major, Tajie’s husband, died from lung cancer in 1998, and a jury found Lorillard 17% responsible for damages.
  • $1,400,000: Donat Lenney was awarded nearly $1.4 million in a 2011 mesothelioma lawsuit. Lenney smoked Kent Micronite cigarettes from 1953 to 1956 because Lorillard’s advertising led him to believe that the asbestos filters were the safe choice.

Former customers and employees who developed asbestos-related diseases because of Kent Micronite filters have filed hundreds of lawsuits. Since 2014, Lorillard and RJR Tobacco have paid more than $40 million in asbestos compensation to settle claims. Just between 2021 and 2023, the company paid out more than $21 million to resolve approximately 90 asbestos lawsuits.

In cases involving asbestos in Lorillard’s cigarette filters, it’s common for patients to take multiple tobacco companies or asbestos product manufacturers to court at the same time. An asbestos lawyer can help you identify possible sources of exposure and gather the necessary evidence.

What Can You Do About Exposure to Asbestos Cigarette Products?

If you believe that smoking Kent cigarettes exposed you to asbestos, you should see a pulmonologist and tell them about your asbestos exposure history. Doctors often recommend Low-Dose Computed Tomography scans to look for signs of developing lung cancer or mesothelioma.

Annual cancer screenings can also be important for surviving family members who lived with a person who smoked Kent cigarettes or worked with asbestos. Catching asbestos-related cancers early can improve treatment outcomes.

It’s important to find a specialist if you’re diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease because treatment is highly specialized. An expert can tailor treatment to your unique case.

Common Questions About Asbestos Cigarette Filters

Which cigarette brand had asbestos filters?

Kent Micronite cigarettes, made by the Crane, Lorillard Tobacco Company were the only major brand sold with asbestos filters. From 1952 to 1956, the filters contained blue crocidolite asbestos manufactured by the Hollingsworth & Vose Company. Lorillard produced at least 12 billion Kent Micronite cigarettes during this 4-year period before switching to a different filter material.

Does cigarette smoke contain asbestos?

Smoke from Kent Micronite cigarettes sold between 1952 and 1956 did contain asbestos. A 1995 laboratory study found that smoking a pack of Kent Micronite cigarettes every day for a year would expose a smoker to roughly 131 million microscopic crocidolite asbestos fibers carried directly into the lungs. Modern cigarette filters made with cellulose acetate don’t contain asbestos.

How dangerous were asbestos cigarette filters?

Extremely dangerous. Crocidolite, the asbestos type used in Kent Micronite filters, is the most lethal form of asbestos and a WHO Group 1 carcinogen. A pack-a-day smoker inhaled an estimated 131 million crocidolite fibers each year directly into deep lung tissue, where the fibers can trigger mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and laryngeal cancer decades later. Asbestos exposure combined with cigarette smoking multiplies lung cancer risk roughly 50 times compared to smoking alone.

How do I know if I smoked Kent Micronite cigarettes?

 If you smoked Kent cigarettes during the 1952 to 1956 window, you were exposed to crocidolite asbestos and should tell your doctor about your history. Kent Micronite cigarettes with asbestos filters were sold from 1952 to 1956. The packs carried the slogan “The greatest health protection in cigarette history” and marketed the filters as a safety innovation. After 1956, Lorillard replaced the asbestos filter with a different material but kept the Kent brand name, so smoking Kent cigarettes after 1956 didn’t involve asbestos exposure.

Can I sue if I was exposed to asbestos cigarette filters?

Yes. Multiple lawsuits against Crane, Lorillard Tobacco Co. and Hollingsworth & Vose Co. have resulted in multi-million-dollar verdicts for people who smoked Kent Micronite cigarettes and later developed mesothelioma or lung cancer. Notable verdicts include $8 million for U.S. veteran Richard DeLisle in 2018 and $3.75 million for Tajie Major’s family in 2017. If you smoked Kent Micronite cigarettes between 1952 and 1956 and have since been diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness, you may qualify to file a claim. An experienced asbestos attorney can review your case at no cost.

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