R.J. Reynolds announced last week that it will reduce its workforce by 40 percent as it tries to deal with the competitive threat posed by a significant increase in demand for low-cost brands. Demand for cheap smokes has been boosted by tax hikes, and their makers’ ability to keep prices (relatively) low is helped by the fact that they are often not burdened by the tobacco ’settlement’ costs that burden more established manufacturers.

So what’s the big deal? Well, no cigarette is safe, but generics generally have far, far more of the bad stuff than the brand names. You’d think that is something that the health watchdogs would want publicized, but they don’t, lest it detract from their misleading – and dangerous – mantra that all cigarettes are equally lethal. They are not. And the cigarette companies should be allowed to say so.