With counsel from TIRC, tobacco companies began mass-marketing filtered cigarettes and low-tar formulations that promised a "healthier" smoke.

CNN: A brief history of tobacco

The use of terms such as low-tar is set to be banned from September 2003 under a European Union directive.

BBC: Women 'conned' by low tar cigarettes

It said the law will give the FDA the power to restrict advertising, stop illegal sales of tobacco products, require graphic health warnings that cover the top half of the front and back of cigarette packs, ban misleading health claims such as "light" and "low-tar, " regulate health claims, require disclosure of the contents of tobacco products, require changes in tobacco products.

CNN: Senate passes bill increasing FDA power over tobacco products

They will soon bioengineer bacteria to melt oil out of tar sands, turn grass into diesel fuel and scavenge natural resources of every kind out of low-grade, thinly dispersed deposits.

FORBES: Techno-Optimism

Clive Bates, director of the anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health, told BBC News Online that the whole concept of low tar cigarettes was a "complete confidence trick" played on the consumer.

BBC: Women 'conned' by low tar cigarettes