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instances of control and manipulation of nicotine by some in the 

 tobacco industry that have been uncovered through painstaking 

 investigational work over the last three months. 



We have discovered that manipulation of nicotine has been 

 carried out by some even before tobacco seeds were planted in the 

 fields. We have discovered other forms of manipulation that 

 occur later, in the design and manufacture of cigarettes. 



Today I want to discuss two examples of nicotine 

 manipulation in some detail. First, we have discovered the 

 deliberate genetic manipulation of the nicotine content in a 

 tobacco plant. It is the story of how an American tobacco 

 company spent more than a decade quietly developing a high- 

 nicotine tobacco plant, growing it in Central and South America, 

 and using it in American cigarettes. Second, I will discuss how 

 chemical compounds are added to cigarettes to manipulate nicotine 

 delivery. 



I. GENETIC MANIPULATION OF NICOTINE CONTENT 

 The project I am going to tell you about led to development 

 of a tobacco plant code-named "Y-1." (Chart 1) It has been an 

 enormous task to piece together the picture of Y-1. 

 Confidentiality agreements have made getting the facts very 



difficult. 



The story begins in Portuguese with our discovery of a 

 Brazilian patent for a new variety of a flue-cured tobacco 

 plant.' (Chart 2) One sentence of its English translation 

 caught our eye. "The nicotine content of the leaf of this 

 variety is usually higher than approximately 6% by weight. . .which 

 is significantly higher than any normal variety of tobacco grown 

 commercially."' (Chart 3) 



Prior to our discovery of the patent, an industry executive 

 had told us that "flue-cured tobacco naturally contains 2 . 5 to 

 3.5 percent nicotine."^ (Chart 4) Thus, this new specially bred 

 plant would contain approximately twice the nicotine that 

 naturally occurs in flue-cured tobacco. 



