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March 25, 1994 Page 10 



the machine with the identical cigarette.' 



In actual use, the cigarettes most people smoke provide them 

 with similar amounts of nicotine over the course of a day 

 regardless of the FTC test-rated yield. This is a function of 

 both the number of cigarettes smoked and the way those cigarettes 

 are smoked. The FTC test does not provide consumers with 

 reliable information about what they can expect to ingest when 

 smoking cigarettes of a particular brand. 



The Control of Nicotine in Cigarettee 



In 1952, the Food and Drug Administration found that 

 cigarette tobacco from the five leading brands contained an 

 average of from 1.58 to 1.82 percent nicotine on a dry weight 

 basis (Wright, 1952). These values may be compared to the 1.5 to 

 2.5% nicotine Mr. Johnston reported for finished cigarettes in 

 1994 in his recent letter to Dr. Kessler. If anything, 

 cigarettes on the market forty years ago appear to have contained 

 less nicotine than many do now. This suggests that the losses of 

 nicotine during manufacture from raw leaf to finished product may 

 have been more pronounced then than now. However, the world of 

 cigarette manufacture was vastly different four decades ago. 



In 1950, the-Federal Trade Commission found,. 



' Greater heating of the proximal part of the tobacco rod 

 and of the filter by increased velocity of the draw would be 

 expected to release even more nicotine from these potentially 

 nicotine-enriched regions. The technology for enriching these 

 regions with nicotine is' discussed in the next section. 



