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an agenda to Philip Morris outlining our information interests prior to 

 our \-isits: the personnel we saw during our inspections responded 

 cooperatively in helping to gather the information for this review. 



We did not find any basis for concluding that Philip Morris 

 manipulates, or intentionally adds measurably to, the nicotine content 

 of cigarettes through its processing and manufacturing. 



Two of the facilities manufacture reconstituted tobacco products 

 known as blended leaf and reconstituted leaf, respectively. These are 

 produced by utilizing tobacco leaf stems and other tobacco leaf 

 particles, which are ground up and made into a thin tobacco sheet. 

 Indeed, the reconstituted tobacco production process is comparable 

 to many food processing operations in which natural agricultural 

 products are separated and recombined. 



During the manufacture of these blended and reconstituted tobacco 

 leaf products, certain non-tobacco materials are used for flavoring and 

 as processing aids. None of these materials contain nicotine; the 

 nicotine content of the resulting reconstituted tobacco products is a 

 function of that which naturally occurs, less processing losses. In the 

 blended leaf process 30-40 % of the nicotine is lost; and 20-25 % is 

 lost in the reconstituted leaf process. Flavorings containing tobacco 

 extracts are not used in the manufacture of reconstituted tobacco 

 products for domestic use. These reconstituted products are used as 



