If you smoked Kents in the 1950s… - cigarettes contained crocidolite asbestos fibers - Brief Article

Science News, June 10, 1995

The fine, hairy fibers (arrow) sticking out of the filter of this 40-year-old Kent cigarette are crocidolite, a very carcinogenic type of asbestos. Each puff of smoke from these cigarettes--some 11.7 billion of which were sold through at least May 1956--could carry more than 131 million asbestos structures (each containing up to hundreds of fibers), a new study shows.

William E. Longo of Materials Analytical Services in Norcross, Ga., and his colleagues used mechanical smoking devices to study the asbestos released by Kents from previously unopened packs. They say their data, reported in the June 1 Cancer Research, suggest that early Kent smokers--even those who gave up cigarettes long ago--may face some risk of mesothelioma, a virulent, asbestos-related cancer.