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Since 1995, nicotine increased by 11% in cigarettes
Manufacturers also modified several design features to increase the number of puffs per cigarette.
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An analysis of nicotine yield from major brand-name cigarettes sold in Massachusetts between 1997 and 2005 has confirmed that manufacturers have steadily increased the levels of this agent in cigarettes.
The analysis, based on data submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health by the manufacturers, found that increases in smoke nicotine yield per cigarette average 1.6% each year, or about 11% through a seven-year period.
A research team from the Tobacco Control Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health performed the data analysis.
“Cigarettes are finely-tuned drug delivery devices, designed to perpetuate a tobacco pandemic,” Howard Koh, MD, associate dean for public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health said in a press release. “Yet precise information about these products remains shrouded in secrecy, hidden from the public. Policy actions today requiring the tobacco industry to disclose critical information about nicotine and product design could protect the next generation from the tragedy of addiction.”
In addition to the increase in yield, the researchers concluded that manufacturers accomplished the increase not only by intensifying the concentration of nicotine in the tobacco but also by modifying several design features of cigarettes to increase the number of puffs per cigarette. The end result is a product that is potentially more addictive.
The researchers also examined all market categories and found that smoke nicotine yields were increased in the cigarettes of each of the four major manufacturers and across all the major cigarette market categories.
Increased regulation
Gregory Connolly, MD, professor of the practice of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health said the discovery of an 11% increase in nicotine content confirms recent statements by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that manufacturers have the ability to manipulate addictive additives, and, he said, “it underscores the need for continued surveillance of nicotine delivery in products created by an unregulated industry.
“Our findings call into serious question whether the tobacco industry has changed at all in its pursuit of addicting smokers since signing the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 with the State Attorneys General,” Connolly said in a written statement.
Connolly said scrutiny by the attorneys general is imperative. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts introduced legislation that would bring the tobacco industry under the rules that regulate other manufacturers of drugs.
Beginning in 1997, Massachusetts’s regulations have required that an annual report be filed with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health by all manufacturers of cigarettes sold in Massachusetts. The reported data include machine-based measures of nicotine yield as well as measures of cigarette design related to nicotine delivery.
The researchers suggest that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health amend its unique reporting requirements to include more information about cigarette and smokeless tobacco product design features that affect nicotine delivery, as well as testing of a sample of brands for the actual delivery of nicotine to the body.