BAT has taken an important first step towards less hazardous cigarettes with the launch of a clinical study of prototype cigarettes designed to produce less toxicants in smoke. The vast majority of tobacco users are smokers. Providing them with less harmful, consumer-acceptable combustible alternatives to their conventional cigarette, amidst a growing jungle of anti-tobacco legislation and so far mostly unclear regulations, is a long-term task for the leading cigarette manufacturers. Concrete results in the form of marketable products are approximately ten to fifteen years away. This May, British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's second-largest cigarette manufacturer, shed some light on the progress of its development of potentially reduced exposure products (PREPs) when it announced that it had initiated a clinical study on experimental prototype cigarettes designed to, produce less toxic smoke than conventional products.