Nicotine Levels Rose 10 Percent in Last Six Years, Report Says
BOSTON, Aug. 30 (AP) — The level of nicotine that smokers typically consume per cigarette has risen 10 percent in the past six years, making it harder to quit and easier to be addicted, said a report that the Massachusetts Department of Health released on Tuesday.
The study shows a steady increase in the amount of nicotine delivered to the smokers’ lungs regardless of brand, with overall yields increasing 10 percent.
Massachusetts is one of three states to require tobacco companies to submit information on nicotine testing to its specifications and is the sole state with data as far back as 1998.
The study found that the three most popular brands with young smokers, Marlboro, Newport and Camel, delivered significantly more nicotine than they did six years ago. Nicotine consumed in Kool, a popular menthol brand, rose 20 percent.
Jennifer Golisch, a spokeswoman for Phillip Morris USA, part of Altria and the largest cigarette maker and manufacturer of Marlboros, declined to comment. Reynolds American, manufacturer of Kools and Camels, also declined.
The study has always measured nicotine levels based on the way smokers use cigarettes, health officials said. That includes partly covering ventilation holes while smoking and taking longer puffs.
Traditional testing does not take habits into account and typically reports lower nicotine contents, researchers said.
“The amount of nicotine in a cigarette has increased steadily over the past six years,” the department said, indicating in its reports that the smoking habits simulated had not changed in that period.
Of the 179 brands tested in 2004, 93 percent fell into the highest range for nicotine. In 1998, 84 percent of 116 brands were in the highest range.
“We want health care providers to know that smokers are getting more nicotine than in the past and may need additional help in trying to quit,” the public health commissioner, Paul Cote Jr., said.
The report said that for all brands tested in 1998 and 2004 there was no significant difference in the total nicotine delivered among full flavor, medium, light or ultralight cigarettes.
The finding means that agencies trying to help smokers quit may have to adjust the strength of nicotine replacement therapies like nicotine patches and gums.###
Raising Nicotine Doses, on the Sly
While most of us thought the country was 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.###
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