550 



- 4 - 



Morris, in which tobacco is "puffed" much like puffed 

 rice cereal — tar and nicotine levels are reduced still 

 further. 



There has been a fair amount of recent discussion 

 of the reconstituted tobacco process. Again, that 

 process has been thoroughly described for years in the 

 published literature. In that process, stems and small 

 leaf parts are re-formed into a paper-like sheet. The 

 reconstituted leaf process does not increase nicotine 

 levels in tobacco or cigarettes. To the contrary. 2 0% 

 to 25% of the nicotine in the tobacco used to make 

 reconstituted leaf is lost and not replaced . 



These processes, when combined in the cigarettes 

 Philip Morris sells today, reduce nicotine delivery 

 levels by more than 50% in the case of Marlboro, to 96% 

 in the case of Merit Ultima, as compared to a "standard" 

 cigarette made of nothing but tobacco and paper. 



Ignoring these reductions, some critics have 

 focused on minute amounts of nicotine that are found in 

 tobacco extracts and denatured alcohol — which together 

 have no measurable effect on nicotine delivery of our 

 cigarettes. 



