115 



ing, they were to give a jolt on the nicotine when the smoker 

 smokes. 



So, I think that we ought to find out, if we are going to talk 

 about credibility, the credibility of this industry that has attempted 

 to mislead the American people and their Representatives, both in 

 the Congress and in the Executive Branch. 



Now, Dr. Kessler, there are 599 ingredients added to tobacco. 

 Few people have any idea what most of these ingredients are for. 

 You have now told us that ammonia and substances related to am- 

 monia are applied to reconstituted tobacco for a variety of pur- 

 poses, including to increase nicotine transfer efficiency and you say 

 that ammonia is added directly to the tobacco. 



Can you describe for us the mechanism by which ammonia would 

 increase the nicotine received by the smoker? 



Mr. Kessler. Congressman, without getting into the complex- 

 ities of acid-based chemistry and vapor chemistry, let me explain 

 it as I understand it. 



Nicotine in tobacco, in most instances, is in the salt stage. Am- 

 monia, when it gets released into the smoke, according to the infor- 

 mation that we have learned from the industry, when that ammo- 

 nia gets in the cigarette smoke, it changes the pH of the smoke and 

 it changes the nicotine from the salt state to the free state and that 

 free state has changed the bioavailability as it gets into the body. 

 That is a simplified version. I hope I haven't misstated it. 



Mr. Waxman. Do you have information on industry-wide prac- 

 tices with respect to the addition of ammonia? Is the addition of 

 ammonia an industry-wide practice? 



Mr. Kessler. It is on the list. There are a number of different 

 ammonia compounds — diammonium phosphate, ammonium hy- 

 droxide. Urea is on the list. 



From the documents that we have seen, in fact, many companies 

 use ammonia compounds. Only one company document that we 

 have substantiates that company is using it specifically for that in- 

 tended purpose. 



Until we have access to other documents, Mr. Chairman, I can't 

 tell you how widespread it is. 



Mr. Waxman. We were told by industry representatives that the 

 FTC tests would measure whether there was an increase in nico- 

 tine or not. Have you verified whether ammonia added to the ciga- 

 rettes in some way or other increases the level of nicotine that 

 comes into the FTC test? 



Mr. Kessler. We have had to rely on industry studies. We don't 

 have that capability. 



I just want to add one note of caution here, Mr. Chairman. The 

 FTC measures do measure what the machine measures, but they 

 don't measure necessarily what humans are consuming. We have 

 seen information that would suggest that there are human smok- 

 ing measurements as well as machine smoking measurements. 



We don't have access to that information. So until I have access 

 to all information and all smoke analj^icals from the cigarette in- 

 dustry, I am not going to be in a position to answer that question. 



Mr. Waxman. Brown & Williamson, you indicated to us, applied 

 for a patent on this Y plant or whatever it is called, the Y-1. They 

 applied for a patent. They seemed to have trouble with it. They 



