Nicotine Mania

WASHINGTON--A report released by the National Institute of Health (NIH) yesterday said that certain brands of cigarettes are low enough in tar and nicotine that smokers can consume up to a pack a day "without apparent risk."

Though the report does not say that smoking these brands is totally safe, it does indicate that smoking these "low-tar" cigarettes in low quantities poses "no apparent risk," Gio Batta Gori, head of the NIH smoking and health program, said yesterday.