543 



been closely monitored and reported by the Federal Trade Commis- 

 sion. The manufacturers have published the deliveries in every ad- 

 vertisement for the past 25 years. 



The fact is that tar and nicotine levels have decreased dramati- 

 cally over the past 40 years. Today the market is populated with 

 a number of ultra low brands which deliver less than 5 percent of 

 the tar and nicotine levels of popular brands just 20 years ago. 



Philip Morris and other manufacturers have reduced nicotine de- 

 liveries in a number of ways. The most important is through the 

 use of increasingly efficient filters which substantially reduced 

 main smoke components, including both tar and nicotine. Filtration 

 alone reduces nicotine delivery by 35 to 45 percent as compared to 

 cigarettes made of simply tobacco and paper. 



Through a process called ventilation, which allows fresh air to be 

 drawn through the cigarette, nicotine levels are reduced by a fur- 

 ther 10 to 50 percent. Through the use of expanded tobacco, a proc- 

 ess developed by which Philip Morris puffs tobacco much like 

 puffed rice cereal, tar and nicotine levels are reduced still further. 



A fourth manufacturing technique, the reconstituted tobacco 

 process, also reduces the nicotine in cigarettes. This process which 

 has been thoroughly described in the literature for years does not 

 increase nicotine levels in tobacco or in cigarettes. Through this 

 process 20 to 25 percent of the nicotine in the tobacco used to make 

 reconstituted leaf is lost and is not replaced. 



These processes, when combined in cigarettes Philip Morris sells 

 today, reduce nicotine deliveries, for example, by 50 percent in the 

 case of Marlboro, and 90 percent in the case of Merit Ultima; 

 again, compared to cigarettes made simply of tobacco and paper. 



Ignoring these reductions, some critics have focused on the 

 minute amounts of nicotine which are found in tobacco extracts 

 and denatured alcohol. Even when used together, they have no 

 measurable effect on the nicotine levels of our cigarettes. Philip 

 Morris uses small amounts of denatured alcohol to apply flavors to 

 the tobacco. 



The alcohol is denatured, in fact, in order to make it drinkable — 

 non-drinkable under a formula required by the Bureau of Alcohol, 

 Tobacco, and Firearms, and found in the Federal Register. In other 

 words, the outside vendors who supply us with the denatured alco- 

 hol use that tiny amount of nicotine solely to comply with the Fed- 

 eral law. All use by Philip Morris is reported annually to the 

 B.A.T.F. 



Philip Morris has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce 

 tar and nicotine levels to provide the products that the marketplace 

 demands. Why, if we were supposedly intent on adding nicotine to 

 cigarettes, why would Philip Morris have spent over $300 million 

 to develop a process to denicotinize tobacco and launch next a near 

 zero nicotine brand? 



I'll tell you why. Our public opinion research indicated smokers 

 were interested in a no-nicotine cigarette. Our Maxwell House Cof- 

 fee Company had pioneered processes for decaffeination of coffee, 

 and we used that technology as a spring board for denicotinization 

 of tobacco. The process worked, the resulting product did not. 



