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Mr. Sandefur. I can tell you, if that's your definition of manipu- 

 lation, I can tell you that we blend for taste. Now, obviously, a fac- 

 tor in that is based on the different grades of tobacco that we put 

 in a particular blend. We are able to determine what the tar and 

 nicotine deliveries are. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Waxman. Would the gentleman yield to me? 



Mr. Kreidler. Certainly. 



Mr. Waxman. Let's understand what we are saying. You don't 

 like the word manipulate but you blend which means you adjust 

 upward the nicotine levels, you say for taste, but nevertheless it 

 adjusts the nicotine levels upwards so that the cigarettes will be 

 at this controlled level? 



Mr. Sandefur. Mr. Chairman, they adjust up or down depending 

 on the particular taste characteristics that the blender has in mind 

 when he's blending the cigarette, yes. 



Mr. Waxman. When would you blend downward? 



Mr. Sandefur. In an ultra low tar cigarette or a light or mild 

 cigarette, and is blending down 



Mr. Waxman. If the nicotine levels are high, you blend it so it 

 would be less. 



Mr. Sandefur. That would be possible, certainly. As I testified 

 on April 5 — ^April 14. I believe my testimony was, if the constitu- 

 ents of the blend are available, we in fact can do that. 



Now, one of the problems that you have is that as I think Mr. 

 Schindler from R.J. Reynolds explained we are at the mercy of an 

 agricultural product. We can't determine if it is going to rain and 

 how much it is going to rain. If we have a very dry growing season 

 the concentration of a small leaf, a smaller leaf in mass would have 

 a greater nicotine, yes, sir. 



Mr. Waxman. Is the Barclay cigarette a low tar, low nicotine cig- 

 arette. 



Mr. Sandefur. It's a — yes, I would characterize it as a low tar, 

 low nicotine cigarette. The issue — and Barclay is a very small sell- 

 ing brand unfortunately. But that's the case. It is less than three- 

 tenths of 1 percent market share. And 



Mr. Waxman. I wasn't really interested in buying in stock in 

 this, but I asked it because there is an interesting data from Dr. 

 Neal Benowitz, have you ever heard of him. He's the professor of 

 medicine Chief Division of Clinical Pharmacology Experimental 

 Therapeutics in the Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of 

 Medicine in 1982 identified Barclay as having one of the highest 

 nicotine content levels in the total cigarette, 12.80 milligrams but 

 then under FTC, it yielded one of the lowest nicotine yields and I 

 found that pretty remarkable. 



He also indicated that per weight, the nicotine was 2.69 — this is 

 a chart that shows it, it really is pretty remarkable because the 

 Barclay cigarette is called low tar, low nicotine yet it is very high 

 in nicotine content, it just didn't show up on the FTC machine, why 

 is that? 



Mr. Sandefur. Well, as I understand it again, I wasn't involved 

 or I wasn't at the company when Barclay was developed. But as 

 I understand it, that initial blend had a high alkaloid content and 

 a great deal of that tobacco was Maryland grown tobacco. And the 

 characteristic — the taste characteristic 



