243 



better test, or shifting the testing 

 responsibility to another agency bet- 

 ter equipped to carry out the tests, 

 like the Food and Drug Administra- 

 tion or the National Institutes on 

 Standards and Technology, formerly 

 the Bureau of Standards. 



Scientific studies over recent years 

 have shown that smokers get about 

 the same amount of nicotine no mat- 

 ter what kind of cigarette. For exam- 

 ple, when scientists look at the blood 

 levels of nicotine in smokers, they 

 cannot tell the smokers of light ciga- 

 rettes from those of full-flavored cig- 

 arettes, as high tar and nicotine ciga- 

 rettes are called by tobacco compa- 

 nies. The same is true of tar. 



But tar levels are far lower than 

 they were 40 years ago. At that time 

 cigarettes had amounts of tar as high 

 as 30 to 40 milligrams per cigarette. 

 Now. virtually all brands are in the 5 

 to 15 milligram range Nicotine levels 

 have remained relatively stable since 

 1951 



"Smokers can get whatever they 

 want in the way of nicotine," Dr. 

 Henningfield said. "A smoker can 

 draw 3 milligrams of nicotine out of a 

 cigarette that is rated as a 1 milli- 

 gram yield by the F.T.C. test" Ciga- 

 rettes contain a total of about 7 to 9 

 milligram"^ of nicotine in the entire 

 cigarette Smokers draw out about 1 

 milligram of nicotine regardless of 

 the type of cigarette smoked, with a 

 range of intake from 0.5 milligrams 

 to 3 milligrams. 



"There is simply no information to 

 indicate that today's so-called lower 

 tar and nicotine cigarette gives any 

 health benefit." said Matthew L Mey- 

 ers, a lawyer for the Coalition on 

 Smoking or Health, an anti-smoking 

 group representing the American 

 Heart Association, American Lung 

 Association and American Cancer So- 

 ciety, in a ielep)hone interview He 

 questioned perpetuating a system 

 that "falsely implies smokers should 

 use cigarettes with tower ratings, 

 raising major health concerns." 



Mr. Meyers added. "The FTC. 

 method IS so flawed that it raises a 



senous question whether the method 

 causes more harm than good " For 

 example, he said, a smoker may buy 

 a "tow-nicoune" cigarette, then con- 

 sciously or unconsciously smoke 

 more cigarettes or draw deeper to get 

 enough nicotine to satisfy the smoker. 

 But the smoker is getting not only 

 more nicotine but more tar as well, 

 which may well be higher than what 

 the smoker would get from regular 

 agarettes. 



Two years ago, the Coalition filed a 

 petition with the F.T.C to consider 

 changing the commission's test 

 method, or dropping the results from 

 advertising, because they may be 

 misleading. But until recently, action 

 on the petition had not got the staff 

 near to a recommendation. The pres- 

 sure has now been turned up as 

 members of Congress have begun to 

 call the agency to ask why a faulty 

 test remains in place and potentially 

 misleading information continues to 

 be allowed in advertising. 



Mr Meyers said that the F.T.C and 

 others acted in good faith in trying to 

 establish the testing program initial- 

 ly, but that the commission could be 

 criticized both for sticking to the test 

 for years after it became clear that 

 the lest did not match the way people 

 smoke and for failing to explain the 

 limits of the test in light of what we 

 know today. 



Critics of the tobacco industry sug- 

 gest that the manufacturers have put 

 holes in the cigarettes over the years 

 to give better-looking results on the 

 smoking machines and thus enticing 

 smokers to their light brands. The 

 companies deny this, saying that 

 smokers are asking for lighter ciga- 

 rettes and that tl^y are trying to 

 follow those demands. 



Dr. Neal L Benowitz. a professor of 

 medicine at the University of Califor- 

 nia at San Francisco and an expert on 

 smoking, said that giving consumers 

 accurate data on how much tar and 

 nicotine a cigarette delivers would be 

 a major step forward la reducing 

 smoking in the United Sutes. | 



