Is the tobacco industry really trying to reduce health risks? Where there’s smoke, there’s controversy. Every year 420,000 Americans die from the effects of cigarette smoke. But the tobacco industry’s efforts to confront its toxic products and create less deadly cigarettes have resulted in turmoil, failure, as well as an Academy Award-nominated film (The Insider).

In Search for a Safe Cigarette, NOVA gains unprecedented access to tobacco research and manufacturing facilities and asks the question: Can science help create a safer cigarette?

Journey inside a lit cigarette and see how superheated tobacco creates over 45 known carcinogens. Trace the little-known history of "reduced risk" cigarettes, and discover why safer cigarettes developed in the 1960s were discontinued. See how tobacco-specific nitrosomines damage human DNA. Explore America’s love affair with cigarettes, including tobacco’s role in US history, shrewd cigarette marketing, and the impact of the Surgeon General’s warning. Then look into the future of "safer" tobacco products, like Accord, a new smoking system that features an external battery-powered tobacco lighter.