Big Tobacco's big deception
A Times EditorialPublished September 4, 2006
It almost doesn't matter how outrageously you try to caricature the tobacco industry and its devious ways. It always does you one better. Now it turns out that the industry has been secretly boosting nicotine levels in recent years in order to make it harder for smokers to quit.
According to a study by the Massachusetts Department of Health, from 1998 to 2004 the amount of nicotine in cigarettes inhaled by a typical smoker rose by about 10 percent. In some cigarette brands the increase was more than 30 percent. The study found increases particularly prevalent in the brands most popular among young people and minorities. Even cigarettes labeled "light" and "ultralight" were found to have high nicotine yield ranges that were raised over time.
Tobacco companies have gotten away with this by figuring out a way to beat the standard government test for measuring nicotine, the addictive element in cigarettes. The industry designed cigarettes with tiny ventilation holes that would allow smoke to escape before the government's test machine could measure it. But a smoker would cover the vents during the process of smoking with either their lips or fingers, thereby inhaling the full contents.
Massachusetts obtained the more accurate nicotine measurements by presuming that half the vents will be blocked by users. This small change resulted in significant increases in nicotine levels. Obviously, the industry is attempting to get smokers addicted more quickly and more hopelessly. It is no wonder that the 70 percent of smokers who want to quit have so much trouble doing so.
When the tobacco industry was sued in the 1990s by state governments for the harm it caused to public health, industry documents turned over during the litigation unearthed its unsavory practice of spiking the nicotine content of cigarettes. You would think after paying billions of dollars to settle the case that had been largely built on the deceitful nature of the industry, it would try to operate above-board. Instead it's business as usual. The cigarette industry is willing to do anything - even cheat on government tests - to snare a customer for life.
Tobacco is still not a drug regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. This needs to change. So does the way this industry does business.