178 



what all this shows is that Brown & Williamson has had an in- 

 tense interest for many decades about the pharmacological impacts 

 of nicotine. 



Not a single one of these documents talk about studying the 

 taste of nicotine. Only the drug-like impact of nicotine in cigarettes 

 in the brain in the brain waves, in the central nervous system. Do 

 you imagine that you could taste something 



Mr. Sandefur. Mr. Chairman, I would beg to differ with you. If 

 you had asked for documents about taste, we'd have sent you docu- 

 ments about taste. If you had asked about documents about nico- 

 tine, we — I mean, about tar, we'd have sent you that. 



Mr. Waxman. We asked you for documents about nicotine. 



Mr. Sandefur. Yes, sir, I understand. 



Mr. Waxman. So if you have documents about nicotine and taste, 

 they should have been in this file. 



Mr. Sandefur. I'm sure our lawyers — I haven't gone through 

 those documents, Mr. Chairman. I'm sure our lawyers complied 

 with the request of the subcommittee. 



Mr. Waxman. I think they did and what we have are documents 

 that show a great deal of interest on nicotine as a pharmacological 

 agent and not a single document on nicotine as a taste, and I just 

 raise that to your attention because it seems to me that it is hard 

 to reconcile all this evidence with the statement that nicotine is not 

 a drug. 



Mr. Sandefur. I'm sure — I'm sure it is, and I can appreciate 

 your concern and how you would — how you would arrive at that 

 conclusion. 



As I've said, I'm not a scientist. I rely on my scientists to give 

 me information and to give me input. 



Mr. Waxman. Have any of them given you input that nicotine is 

 a taste? 



Mr. Sandefur. They have told me they consider nicotine to be 

 a taste, yes, sir. And 



Mr. Waxman. And have you had any scientist investigating how 

 to improve the change, improve or change the taste from nicotine? 



Mr. Sandefur. We've had a lot of work done on taste and nico- 

 tine as a constituency of taste, yes, sir. 



Mr. Waxman. Well, Mr. Sandefur, my time is up and I want to 

 recognize other members, but I do repeat to you, these are the doc- 

 uments we received. We requested documents on research on nico- 

 tine and all these documents indicate that your scientists were 

 doing a lot of work for many decades on how nicotine acts as a 

 drug and has pharmacological impacts. 



Mr. Bliley. 



Mr. Bliley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Sandefur, you said in your opening remarks in commenting 

 on Y-1 



Mr. Sandefur. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Buley [continuing], that unlike the charges that were made 

 earlier this week by Dr. Kessler, that you developed Y-1 at the re- 

 quest of the Federal Government to develop a low tar cigarette that 

 still had an adequate supply of nicotine. You also stated that you 

 did it in Brazil because of the growing conditions and you wanted 

 to keep this proprietary information. Is that correct? 



