WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., April 19 (Reuters) - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., under fire to produce a safer cigarette, claimed on Wednesday its Eclipse cigarette reduced smokers' risks of cancer, chronic bronchitis and possibly emphysema.

R.J. Reynolds, the nation's second-largest tobacco company, began a new round of test marketing to determine whether smokers, who were not drawn to earlier claims that the cigarette produced less second-hand smoke and no ashes, would buy a cigarette that poses fewer health risks. ``The Number One want (among surveyed smokers) would be a cigarette that would present them with less risk than what they are currently smoking,'' Eclipse marketing manager Brice O'Brien said. The Eclipse, which heats tobacco instead of burning it, failed to light up smokers in previous test marketing in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Lincoln, Neb.; and Atlanta. The new marketing pitch that Eclipse is a safer product will be tested in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and the cigarettes also will be available to adult smokers requesting packs over the Internet or by contacting the company. In a climate in which tobacco companies have been accused of concealing for decades the dangers of smoking and face myriad lawsuits filed by sick smokers, Chairman Andrew Schindler of parent R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc., said the company would not make any claims about a cigarette being safer until they were scientically verifiable. Speaking at the company's annual meeting in Winston-Salem, N.C., he said Reynolds made its claim that Eclipse appeared to be a safer cigarette after conducting in-house chemical, toxicological and human testing and then having its results verified independently. Unlike traditional cigarettes, which are lit and then burn down to the filter as smokers inhale, the Eclipse heats tobacco wrapped around a carbon core down the centre of the cigarette. The cigarette does not burn down and produces no ash and little second-hand smoke. The Eclipse smoker inhales smoke composed of 75 percent water and glycerin and 25 percent tar and nicotine, compared with 80 percent tar and nicotine in traditional cigarettes, the company said. Compared with other cigarettes, R.J. Reynolds claims Eclipse contains 80 percent lower levels of many carcinogens in smoke, produces 90 percent fewer skin tumours in mice, produces 70 percent less mutagens -- or chemicals that may damage DNA --in smokers, and reduced bronchial inflammation and inflammation of the lower lung. In yet another admission that cigarette threaten smokers' health, the company's marketing literature spells it out. ``The best choice for smokers who worry about their health is to quit. But for those who choose to smoke, the next best choice is Eclipse,'' a marketing brochure reads.

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