Chapter 13 
to some degree, during the 1960's, in the last 10 years, there has been 
basically no change in the sales-weighted average, whether you measure it 
by the distribution of tars with a percentage of brands under 15 mg or by 
the sales-weighted average nicotine. 
And in fact, data for 1992, and what 1 can estimate myself from 1993 
and 1994, are a slight upturn in the sales-weighted average nicotine. 
If you show your slide on Camel nonfilters, the graph ends in 1982 at a 
tar level of 20.6. It would be interesting to have the data for after 1982. 
DR. TOWNSEND: The tar delivery for Camel nonfilter is virtually flat from 
1982 to the present. This is a chart that I prepared for something else, not 
this. 
DR. HARRIS: And my question is really. What, if any, observations you 
might want to make about what appears to be progress in the decline in 
FTC yields during the last 30 years, a progress of which is really confined 
to the preceding two decades, with no change in the last decade? 
If this had been a meeting on mileage in the car industry, somebody 
would be waving a finger and saying, "What have you guys done in the 
last 10 years with your car model?" 
DR. TOWNSEND: My response to your question, first, is that I believe this 
clearly points out to me the need for the industry to respond with low-tar 
products that have improved taste characteristics. Clearly that is what 
consumers have told me: "I trade in tar for what I perceive as a possible 
benefit, and what I get is less taste." The concept of low tar, great taste, 
does not wash with consumers. 
There are taste deficiencies in the lowest end. Some people choose to 
make that trade because, again, they weigh both factors in the marketplace: 
taste and tar levels. 
But I think both factors are important in their choice, because there are 
many, many smokers who do buy products in the lowest category; again, 
back to the need for some useful and valid comparative information on tar 
levels, and that is already in the market. The FTC test method provides 
valid and reliable information. 
First, beginning in 1981 or 1982, the price of cigarettes in the United 
States began to rise much faster than the rate of inflation. And at the same 
time, we saw a dramatic increase in generic and branded discount cigarettes. 
To some degree, the apparent stagnation in tar and nicotine levels 
may reflect smokers choosing to go from branded to discount and generic 
cigarettes. In fact, from what data I have seen, the major source of brand 
switching in the last 10 years has been to the discount and generic segment 
of the market, which, as you know, is about 35 percent of the market in 
1993. 
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