Omni
From Tobacco Products
Date: 20011201
Markets: Nationwide roll out
Manufacturer
Vector Tobacco, Ltd.
Vector Group Ltd.
Description
Cigarette containing reduced carcinogen tobacco and a carbon filter. Available in full-flavor, lights, ultra lights. Menthol version planned.
Claims
Reduced Carcinogens. Premium Taste Tobacco is processed by a new method, including a palladium treatment. The first premium cigarette created to significantly reduce carcinogenic PAHs, nitrosamines, and catechols, which are the major causes of lung cancer.
Product Design Features
- Conventional style cigarette containing tobacco treated with palladium,which acts as a catalyst for the removal of carcinogens
- Claims to significantly reduce PAHs, nitrosamines, catechols
Images
 What happens when you reduce carcinogens? |
 New Omni Reduced carcingogens, Premium taste |
 Omni. The First Reduced Carcinogen Cigarette. |
Media
Publications
- Smoking behaviour and toxin exposure during six weeks use of a potential reduced exposure product: Omni
- Low-Nicotine Cigarettes Studied as a Smoking Cessation Tool
- Evaluation of Carcinogen Exposure in People Who Used “Reduced Exposure” Tobacco Products
Industry Documents
Links
- Petition for Regulation of Vector’s “Omni” Cigarettes and Star Scientifics’ and Brown and Williamson’s “Advance” Cigarettes
- The Myth of Safe Cigarettes Chris Woolston
- Vector's Data about Omni Cigarettes is Misleading and Underscores Need for FDA Regulation of Tobacco
Market Testing
- No known market testing
Advertising and Selling Messages
- Newspaper and magazine ads claimed that Omni was “created to
significantly reduce carcinogenic PAHs, nitrosamines, and catechols,which are major causes of lung cancer in smokers”
- A Vector Tobacco website claimed Omni produced a 53% reduction
in exposure to NNK (a potent lung carcinogen) and a 15% to 20% reduction in pyrene (a marker for PAH exposure), as measured by machine-derived yields
- Slogan: “Reduced Carcinogens. Premium Taste.”
Packaging
- Red, gold, or silver soft pack featuring Omni brand with large, distinctive “O”
- Available in regular, lights, and ultralights, in both king and 100 varieties
- Omni Free, a cigarette designed to have no nicotine, was later rebranded as Quest (See pages 27-28)[1]
Use and the Consumer
- Available from 2001 to 2006 throughout the US in select stores
Smoke Emissions and Human Use
- FTC (standard) method, according to Vector: CO: no significant
reduction; NNK: -53%; pyrene: -20%
- FTC (standard) method, according to outside researchers, showed
smaller effects: CO: no significant reduction; NNK: -21%; pyrene: -5%; formaldehyde +68%; nitric oxide +168%
- Massachusetts: not yet conducted or not available
- Health Canada: significant increases in formaldehyde (26%) and nitric oxide (150%)
- Topography: Smokers who switched to Omni: smoked less intensively; had lower total cotinine levels than with their regular cigarettes;increased CO; had an apparent slight decrease of carcinogen,but not significantly; reduced total NNAL levels (not 1-HOPlevels) statistically significantly
- Human exposure: not yet conducted or not available
Toxicity Analyses
- Ames method in vitro: not yet conducted or not available
- In vivo MSP: not yet conducted or not available
- Animal exposure: not yet conducted or not available
Legal Compliance
- Surgeon General warnings
- No sales to minors
- Subject to State and Federal cigarette taxes
Community Response
- Petition submitted to the FDA in 2001 urging jurisdiction over
Omni; specifically, that Omni should be regulated as a “drug” due to Omni’s claims of “reduced carcinogens”
Patents
Early related Palladium treatment - 1968 - Liggett and Meyers
