While most of us were trying to curb smoking,
and the rapacious habits of the tobacco companies,
it turns out the industry has been sneakily
making cigarettes more addictive.
Evidence of what looks like an increasingly
desperate effort to hook new young smokers
and prevent older ones from quitting has been
uncovered by a Massachusetts law that forces
tobacco companies to report test results showing
how much nicotine is inhaled by typical smokers
of their various brands.
This week, the Massachusetts Department of
Public Health revealed that from 1998 through
2004, as public health campaigns were mounted
to curb smoking, the manufacturers increased
the amount of addictive nicotine delivered
to the average smoker by 10 percent. Of 179
cigarette brands tested in 2004, an astonishing
166 brands fell into the state’s highest nicotine
yield range, including 59 brands that the
manufacturers had labeled “light” and 14 described
as “ultra-light.” The three most popular brands
chosen by young smokers — Marlboro, Newport
and Camel — all delivered significantly more
nicotine as the years passed. Virtually all
brands were found to deliver a high enough
nicotine dose to cause heavy dependence.
This trend has escaped notice because the
standard government test uses a smoking machine
that fails to mimic real-life smoking. A manufacturer,
for example, can design a cigarette that will
score low in nicotine delivery to the machine
by placing tiny ventilation holes in the filter
to dilute the smoke. But in real life a smoker
will often cover the vents with lips or fingers,
thereby inhaling a higher dose of nicotine.
When Massachusetts required the manufacturers
to use what it considered a more realistic
method, the nicotine yields were more than
twice those found on the standard test. The
Massachusetts approach may not be perfect,
but it is surely a lot more accurate than
the traditional test, which virtually all
independent experts consider deficient.
It is stunning to discover how easily this
rogue industry was able to increase public
consumption of nicotine without anyone knowing
about it until Massachusetts blew the whistle.
The Massachusetts report bears out the conclusions
of a federal judge in Washington, who recently
concluded that the companies have designed
cigarettes to produce low nicotine readings
on the standard test while delivering enough
nicotine to create and sustain addiction.
It is long past time for Congress to bring
this damaging and deceitful industry under
federal regulatory control. If the companies
had to justify to the Food and Drug Administration
why they should be allowed to increase the
nicotine inhaled by smokers, you can bet they
wouldn’t even try.
