Philip Morris Increasing Nicotine in Cigarettes, Including Marlboro According to Mass. Dept.
       Yesterday, Philip Morris disputed a Massachusetts study that said the amount of nicotine in cigarettes -- including its top-selling brand, Marlboro -- increased steadily from 1998 to 2004.
        However, on the heels of the Philip Morris’ denial, a developer of genetically engineered tobacco plants with abnormally high levels of nicotine actually lauded the increase in nicotine, saying that there was a positive side to the trend with respect to the health of smokers.
       22nd Century, founded in 1999, is a plant biotechnology company focused on the development of relevant and differentiated products produced from genetically-engineered (GE) Nicotiana plants. The company develops innovative plant lines with combinations of new and/or enhanced traits. They can create tobacco plants with either enchanced nicotine, or nicotine-free.
       Regarding the Massachusetts study, they say that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health had the wrong focus of their study, on the grounds that it is the exposure to "tar" and CO that are actually harmful to smokers, rather than nicotine, even though nicotine is the "addictive" substance in cigarette.
       22nd Century claims that the recent creation of filtered cigarettes, which reduce tar as well as nicotine, has actually increased the volume of smoking that users participate in.
       For example, if an individual was accustomed to one pack a day, and went to a “light” or “filtered” cigarette, they would be more prone to now smoking two packs a day so they could get the same nicotine “high”. So the unintended consequence of reducing nicotine has been an increase in the amount people smoke, increasing the amount of tar and Carbon Dioxide they inhale.
       If there are higher nicotine levels, 22nd Century argues, there will be no need for the “compensatory” smoking, and smokers could receive the same desired effect from nicotine by smoking less.
       22nd Century is planning a clinical study, as well as a short-term, human-exposure study to measure differences in exposure levels to tobacco toxins from cigarettes with varying nicotine levels, and prove that higher nicotine can mean less smoking.
       22nd Century believes that these studies will substantiate that a higher nicotine concentration in cigarette smoke will effectively reduce compensatory smoking of low-yield cigarettes, thereby substantially reducing exposure to most harmful tobacco smoke components, including "tar" and CO.