Lawyers made opening statements Wednesday in a wrongful death and product liability lawsuit filed in Massachusetts against Philip Morris Inc. by the family of a man who died of lung cancer in 2000, after smoking Marlboro cigarettes for years.

According to court documents, the lawsuit alleges that when Stephen C. Haglund began smoking cigarettes in the 1970s, Philip Morris could have provided a safer alternative to Marlboros by employing technology that extracted addictive nicotine from tobacco. The lawsuit was filed in 2001 by Haglund’s wife, Brenda L. Haglund, and two of their children, Stephen M. Haglund and Melissa J. Robledo.

Lawyers for Philip Morris denied that the “alternative design” of lower nicotine cigarettes would have prevented Haglund’s death. Council for Philip Morris, Paul F. Ware, said the “solvent extraction” technology could not remove all the nicotine from cigarettes and, more importantly, would not remove any of the carcinogens.

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