'Healthy' cigarettes deceiving smokers

BEIJING -A Beijing-based anti-smoking group on Thursday said there was no such thing as a safe cigarette and accused some tobacco companies of deceiving consumers.

Cigarettes hyped as low in tar and nicotine or laced with traditional Chinese medicine are misleading, if not outright cheating, warned Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the NGO Think Tank Research Center for Health Development at a seminar.

China has 350 million smokers, official statistics show. Every year, one million die of smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer.