Nicotine hike in tobacco fuels "tobacco pandemic"

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An analysis of major-brand cigarettes, sold in Massachusetts from 1997 to 2005, on Thursday showed significant increase in the levels of nicotine in cigarettes, fueling a "tobacco pandemic" that makes it difficult for smokers to quit the smoking habit.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) revealed yesterday that manufacturers have steadily increased the levels of this chief addictive ingredient in cigarettes by 11 percent over a seven-year period or an average 1.6 percent each year.

The researchers from the Tobacco Control Research Program at HSPH analyzed the data submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) by more than 100 major manufacturers. The state health department had released its own study in August, showing nicotine levels steadily rising.

Besides confirming the magnitude of the increase, the independent analysis by Harvard researchers focused on two more issues, one is “how manufacturers accomplished the increase” and the other is “examine all market categories”.

The researchers, led by Gregory Connolly, director of the school's Tobacco Control Research Program, presented their findings from the report "Trends in Smoke Nicotine Yield and Relationship to Design Characteristics Among Popular U.S. Cigarette Brands" at Harvard School of Public Health, Bldg 3/Rm 203, on Thursday.

"Cigarettes are finely tuned drug delivery devices designed to perpetuate a tobacco pandemic," said Howard Koh, the HSPH’s associate dean for public health practice and Ex-commissioner of Massachusetts public health. "Yet precise information about these products remains shrouded in secrecy, hidden from the public."

According to the Harvard analysis of the state's health records, to raise amounts of nicotine inhaled by smokers, cigarette making companies intensified the concentration of the agent in their tobacco and modified cigarette designs to increase the number of puffs per cigarette.

The researchers found increased nicotine for every major manufacturer, and across all major cigarette market categories, from mentholated and non-mentholated to full-flavored, light and ultra-light, though at varying rates for different brands.

As per the researchers’ analysis, the worst offenders were Camel and Doral, made by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, and Newport, made by Carolina Group's Lorillard Tobacco, while the best-selling brand, Marlboro, made by Philip Morris USA, a subsidiary of Altria Group, did not show overall change.

Philip Morris, whose data reported to Massachusetts has showed the same nicotine yields for Marlboros in 2006 as it was in 1997, 1.86 mg per cigarette, in a statement said, "There are random variations in cigarette nicotine yields, both upwards and downwards."

The study was funded by the Washington, D.C. based American Legacy Foundation and the National Cancer Institute.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. An estimated 438,000 premature deaths (or about 1 of every 5 deaths) each year in US happen due to lung cancer and other diseases related to tobacco use, and approximately 900,000 persons become addicted to smoking each year.

Despite a Master Settlement Agreement between U.S. states and the major tobacco companies in 1998, Connolly said cigarette makers had failed to warn consumers about rising levels of nicotine.

He urged U.S. states to step up scrutiny of the tobacco industry.