The fact of the matter is, people are going to smoke no matter what the health risks are. Yes, it is totally true that cigarettes are addictive and dangerous, but these days Big Tobacco freely admits these facts. A lot of research has gone into making "reduced harm" products. I test some of these, and let me tell you, they have almost negligible levels of PAHs, VOCs, Phenolics, Carbonyls, etc. The problem is, they don't taste all that great. It seems that taking out the nasties in cigarette smoke reduces the flavor quite a bit.
There is an electrically heated cigarette on the market that produces almost no second hand smoke and has almost none of the constituents listed above. You put a 72 mg "cigarette" into a lighter device. The problem is, other than the reduced flavor, is it takes away from the "smoking experience". Smokers are just as addicting to the act of smoking as they are to nicotine.
You last statement, did the execs lie, I don't and cannot know for certain. They might have, in fact they probably did. But anyone who has lived on this planet since the 1960's knows that no one is currently saying that cigarettes are good for you. It is IMPOSSIBLE for the government to win this case.