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Mr. Bryant. The question is, if it only affects taste, it would only 

 be logical that you would do it and no one would object to it if you 

 did it much like a candy bar producer could add more or less sugar. 

 If it only affects taste, why don't you do it? 



Mr. Sandefur. Well, Congressman, my concern is that we don't 

 do it, so why should we say it's nothing wrong with doing it. We 

 don't do it. 



Mr. Bryant. It doesn't seem to me to make much sense for you 

 to tell us that it is not addictive, that it has no pharmacological ef- 

 fects, it only affects taste and we don't increase or lower the 

 amounts of it. If it only affected taste, you would increase or lower 

 the amounts of it to meet consumer demand for a particular type 

 of taste, so that seems to indicate to me 



Mr. Sandefur. Congressman, we market any number of blends 

 with different varying tar and nicotine levels. We don't have one 

 tar and nicotine level that we market all of our cigarettes against. 

 Because the taste varies, the taste varies. The demand varies by 

 the consumer. 



Mr. Waxman. Mr. Bryant, if you would permit 



Mr. Bryant. Yes. 



Mr. Waxman. You say you wouldn't go out and buy nicotine and 

 add it, but you went out and genetically engineered a new tobacco 

 plant that had a higher nicotine level. Why ddd you do that? 



Mr. Sandefur. Well, Congressman, because I was looking or we 

 were looking for a steady supply of nicotine leaf, a leaf with higher 

 nicotine. As I've said, we can buy Zimbabwe leaf with the same lev- 

 els of nicotine in the leaf or Chinese leaf, but we wanted a steady 

 supply and we were trying to adhere to what many, many people 

 were saying that you needed to think about doing, to reduce the 

 tar and maintain the nicotine. And this was a blender's tool, poten- 

 tially a blender's tool that would allow us to do that. 



That was why we did it. It wasn't because we said we want to 

 create Y-1 and put all the — make 100 percent Y-1 cigarette to have 

 a six-fold increase in nicotine. That's not 



Mr. Waxman. Why did you react so negatively to the idea that 

 you might just add nicotine if you, after all, have reduced the nico- 

 tine in cigarettes through the process you are putting in a higher 

 blend, a blend of higher nicotine to get that nicotine back up? What 

 difference does it make how you get it back up if you think it is 

 important to get it up? You are 



Mr. Sandefur. I don't think it does. The implication is that 

 that's what we are doing. We are not doing that. We are not doing 

 that. 



Mr. Waxman. But you are using a higher — or have used a higher 

 nicotine plant to blend in with the tobacco so that the nicotine lev- 

 els would be higher than otherwise would be the case so that the 

 consumers, in your view, will taste it better. 



Mr. Sandefur. No, sir, that's not the case. 



Mr. Waxman. How am I wrong? 



Mr. Sandefur. All right. Let me tell you. The nicotine level in 

 a Viceroy pre-Y-1 and most Y-1 was essentially the same. 



Mr. Waxman. If nicotine follows tar 



Mr. Sandefur. We talk 



