Tobacco News and Interesting Information

BOSTON: Data supplied by tobacco companies strongly suggest that manufacturers in recent years deliberately raised nicotine levels in cigarettes to more effectively hook smokers, Harvard University researchers conclude in a study that was to be released Thursday.

The companies increasingly used tobacco richer in nicotine, and also made design changes to give smokers more puffs per cigarette, according to the analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health. The report expands on a landmark Massachusetts Department of Public Health study issued last August showing that the amount of nicotine that could be inhaled from cigarettes increased an average of 10 percent from 1998 through 2004.

The Harvard researchers, who corroborated the basic findings of the state study, wanted to determine why cigarettes were delivering more nicotine.

The state report did not address the causes.

"Industry says it's changed," said Greg Connolly, an author of the Harvard study and former director of the state health agency's Tobacco Control Program. "Yeah, they've changed — maybe for the worse."

Philip Morris, the biggest U.S. tobacco maker, released a statement Wednesday night challenging the Harvard study. The company said nicotine levels of its top-selling Marlboro cigarettes had fluctuated but that the rates in 1997 and 2006 were identical. The Harvard study, which was begun several months ago, did not include 2006 data.

The two other leading cigarette makers, Lorillard Tobacco and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, did not return phone calls Wednesday seeking comment on the study.

The Harvard study relies on information supplied by the industry. A 1996 state law required cigarette makers to test the nicotine that could be inhaled from their products, and Massachusetts ordered the use of machines that simulate a typical smoker's puffing.

Massachusetts regulations also require cigarette companies to provide other information to the Department of Public Health related to the delivery of nicotine, a substance that makes smoking more addictive and pleasurable. The state mandated companies to provide measures of nicotine concentration in tobacco, the number of puffs yielded by each cigarette, and the design of the filter.

The Harvard researchers used a statistical analysis to examine data from the companies covering 1997 through 2005, two years more than the earlier state study. Like the Department of Public Health report, the Harvard study found that levels of inhalable nicotine during that period increased regardless of whether the cigarettes were menthol, full flavor, light or ultralight.

The researchers used the company data to review possible causes for the increase, and concluded that the single most important factor in the heightened rates of inhalable nicotine was the amount of nicotine in the tobacco chosen for the cigarettes.

"It was systematic, it was pervasive, it involved all the manufacturers, and it was by design," said Dr. Howard Koh, an associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the study.

The study also said that the company data showed an increase in the number of puffs per cigarette, which the researchers said was probably due to a design change, but they could not determine the mechanism for that increase.

One anti-tobacco campaigner expressed no doubt about what caused the changes.

"The tobacco industry is clearly looking to addict people quickly and to keep them heavily addicted by making it really, really hard for them to quit," said Diane Pickles, executive director of Tobacco Free Massachusetts, an advocacy group not involved with the study.

The Harvard researchers, as well as anti-smoking forces, said the study offers compelling evidence that the federal government should regulate tobacco much the way pharmaceuticals are controlled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, is reviving long- stalled legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration extensive authority over the sale, distribution, and advertising of tobacco products. A spokeswoman for Kennedy said Wednesday night that the senator intended to introduce the legislation in the next couple of weeks.

In its statement, Philip Morris said "there are random variations in cigarette nicotine yields, both upwards and downwards, and those variations are not consistent in either direction across reporting years."

The company said that "Philip Morris USA agrees with the authors that cigarettes are addictive and harmful."