The nation's second-biggest tobacco company is launching a cigarette that heats tobacco rather than burns it. Reynolds American Inc. announced Monday it is launching Revo in Wisconsin in early 2015.
Unlike popular e-cigarettes that use liquid nicotine, Revo contains real tobacco, which could make them more attractive to cigarette smokers. The cigarette uses a carbon tip that heats tobacco after being lit by a lighter.
The Winston-Salem-based company says it's a "repositioning" of its Eclipse product first launched in the mid-1990s.
Eclipse had minimal success but has remained in very limited distribution and is one of the top-selling brands in some markets.
Officials say said that the growth of electronic cigarettes has reinvigorated the appetite for alternatives to traditional cigarettes, including products that smokers once considered foreign.
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