Ever since America’s surgeon-general confirmed the link between cigarette smoking and cancer, more than four decades ago, the tobacco industry has had a problem. How could it continue to increase sales of a product known to contribute significantly to the risk of a painful death? One route has been to target the ignorant. Cigarette firms have deliberately aimed their marketing at youngsters in the Third World, catching them early so that they can feed their addiction for years to come. Even in Britain, despite or even perhaps because of the health warnings, 450 children take up smoking every day.

The other route has been to try to develop the holy grail of the tobacco industry — the safe cigarette. In the 1970s, when the government began publishing tables that distinguished between low, medium and high-tar brands, the companies responded with an aggressive push on low-tar cigarettes. Any health benefits were, however, neutralised by the fact that smokers, desperate for their nicotine fix, responded by smoking more of the low-tar variety and inhaling more deeply on them. So the search went on. In the mid-1980s the smoking world was lit up with rumours of the imminent launch of 100% safe synthetic cigarettes.

Now, as we report today, British American Tobacco has a new wheeze, no pun intended. It is to launch a safer cigarette that will “look and taste like a normal cigarette”, using tobacco treated to produce lower levels of the cancer-causing chemicals. The aim is to cut the risk of smoking-related diseases such as cancer and heart disease by up to 90%. Should we light up a celebratory fag and toast BAT’s ingenuity? No. According to one consultant in respiratory medicine, the new cigarette will be the equivalent of jumping from the 15th rather than the 20th floor; it will still kill you. Action on Smoking and Health points out that cigarette smoke contains 4,000 different chemicals, many of which are toxic. The truth is simple, if unpalatable for smokers: there is no such thing as a safe cigarette and there never will be.