
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995                   TAG: 9506190041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                  LENGTH: Medium

CDC ASKS PHILIP MORRIS TO TURN OVER TAINTED CIGARETTES FOR TESTING

A CHEMICAL USED to kill weeds and soil diseases has been detected in the filters of the recalled cigarettes. The CDC and Philip Morris want to know why.

The federal Centers For Disease Control has asked Philip Morris USA to turn over samples of cigarettes recalled because of tainted filters as it investigates reports of people sickened by the products.

Investigators are unsure whether any of the complaints it has received involve people who actually smoked the tainted cigarettes. The agency is investigating three dozen cases, according to Michael Eriksen, the director of its Office on Smoking and Health.

Some people have reported they have been sickened and in some cases hospitalized from smoking the cigarettes, which were recalled last month. Eriksen said Friday the agency had no evidence that the tainted cigarettes actually reached the market before Philip Morris recalled them.

Eriksen said the CDC normally gets no complaints from smokers about sudden ill effects from smoking. Some of the complaints have involved people who were hospitalized, but the CDC has no reports of fatalities.

Philip Morris spokesman David Laufer said the company would cooperate with the agency. However, he said, Philip Morris does not think any of the recalled cigarettes reached customers.

Although thousands of smokers have called the company's toll-free information line because of concern about the recall, Laufer said follow-up calls have not uncovered any sign that people actually smoked tainted cigarettes.

Philip Morris recalled 8 billion cigarettes last month after discovering that some filters may have been treated with a tainted chemical that hardens the paper in cigarette filters.

The company found methyl isothiocyanate, a chemical used to kill weeds and soil diseases, had turned up in some of the filters exposed to the tainted plasticizer. Its researchers are trying to figure out why.

The chemical, when its fumes are inhaled, can cause headaches, dizziness and breathing problems, including constriction of the bronchial passages.

by CNB