First released:
June 23, 2014
CONTACT: Peter Hamm, 202-296-5469
New Report Details How Tobacco Companies Have Made Cigarettes
More Addictive, More Attractive to Kids and More Deadly
FDA Urged to Stop Harmful Changes Made by Tobacco Industry
WASHINGTON, DC – Design changes and chemical additives introduced
by tobacco companies in recent decades have made cigarettes more addictive,
more attractive to kids and even more deadly, according to a
report issued today by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The report, titled Designed for Addiction, details how
tobacco companies purposely design cigarettes to make tobacco smoke smoother,
less harsh and more appealing to new users, especially kids, and to create and
sustain addiction to nicotine. Tobacco companies have made these changes
without regard for the health impact and actually have increased smokers’ risk
of developing lung cancer.
The report is being released on the fifth anniversary of the
landmark law, signed by President Obama on June 22, 2009, that gave the Food
and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. It calls
on the FDA to require tobacco companies, at a minimum, to reverse the harmful
changes they have made by issuing the first-ever product standards governing
the design and content of tobacco products.
The report shows how tobacco companies have:
·
Made cigarettes more addictive by
controlling and increasing nicotine levels and enhancing the impact of
nicotine.
·
Made cigarettes more attractive to kids by
adding flavorings such as licorice and chocolate that mask the harshness of the
smoke, menthol that makes the smoke feel smoother and other chemicals that
expand the lungs’ airways and make it easier to inhale.
·
Made cigarettes more deadly, as
disclosed in the new Surgeon General’s report on tobacco and health, released
in January. The report found that smokers today have a much higher risk
of lung cancer than smokers in 1964, when the first Surgeon General’s report
alerted Americans to the deadly consequences of smoking. The new Surgeon
General’s report attributed smokers’ increased risk of lung cancer to “changes
in the design and composition of cigarettes since the 1950s.”
“For decades, the tobacco industry had complete control over how
cigarettes were made, and they responded by making a deadly and addictive
product even worse,” said Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for
Tobacco-Free Kids. “Now that it has the authority to regulate tobacco
products, the FDA must require changes in these products to reduce the death
and disease they cause. Decisions about how tobacco products are made and
what is in them must now be based on protecting public health, not tobacco
industry profits.”
The
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other public health organizations have
called on the FDA to issue the first-ever product standard to reduce the
toxicity, addictiveness and/or appeal of cigarettes and other tobacco
products. Among its key recommendations for accelerating progress in
reducing tobacco use, the latest Surgeon General’s report called for
“[e]ffective implementation of FDA’s authority for tobacco product regulation
in order to reduce tobacco product addictiveness and harmfulness.”
While the United States has made enormous progress in reducing
smoking, tobacco use is still the nation’s number on cause of preventable
death. Smoking annually kills 480,000 Americans and costs the nation at
least $289 billion in health care bills and economic losses.
Key Findings: 9 Ways the Tobacco Industry Has Made Cigarettes
More Addictive, More Attractive to Kids and More Deadly
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids report is based on an extensive
review of scientific studies and tobacco industry documents made public as a
result of litigation against the industry. It also draws on the
conclusions of Surgeon General’s reports and the 2006 Final Opinion of U.S.
District Judge Gladys Kessler in her racketeering verdict against the major
cigarette manufacturers.
The report highlights nine key ways in which tobacco companies
have made cigarettes more addictive, more attractive to kids and more deadly:
Making Cigarettes More Addictive
Increased Nicotine: Tobacco companies precisely
control the delivery and amount of nicotine to create and sustain addiction.
Ammonia: Added ammonia compounds produce higher
levels of “freebase” nicotine and increase the speed with which nicotine hits
the brain.
Sugars and Acetaldehyde: Added sugars make tobacco
smoke easier to inhale and, when burned in cigarettes, form acetaldehyde, a
cancer-causing chemical that enhances nicotine’s addictive effects.
Making Cigarettes More Attractive
Tobacco companies know that 90 percent of adult smokers start at
or before age 18 and that smoking is unpleasant for new smokers, so they use
chemical additives to make tobacco smoke smoother, less harsh and more
appealing to the young, novice smoker. These additives include:
Levulinic Acid: Added organic acid salts,
like levulinic acid, reduce the harshness of nicotine and make the smoke
smoother and less irritating.
Flavorings: Added flavors like licorice and
chocolate mask the harshness of the smoke and make tobacco products more
appealing to young people (the 2009 tobacco regulation law prohibited
cigarettes with “characterizing flavors” other than menthol, but did not prohibit
the use of flavorings at levels not considered to be characterizing).
Bronchodilators: These added chemicals expand
the lungs’ airways, making it easier for tobacco smoke to pass into the lungs.
Menthol: Menthol cools and numbs the throat to
reduce irritation and make the smoke feel smoother.
Making Cigarettes More Harmful
The new Surgeon General’s report concluded that smokers’ increased
risk of lung cancer was most likely the result of two design changes in
cigarettes:
Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamines: Levels of
tobacco-specific nitrosamines, a potent carcinogen, have increased
substantially in American cigarettes in recent decades and are much higher than
in cigarettes from Australia and Canada. Factors affecting levels of
nitrosamines include the tobacco blends and curing process used.
Ventilated Filters: Ventilation holes in
cigarette filters cause smokers to inhale more vigorously, drawing carcinogens
deeper into the lungs. (Cigarettes with ventilated filters were introduced
by tobacco companies because they produced lower levels of tar and nicotine in
machine tests and were marketed as less hazardous. However, the evidence now
shows that these cigarettes did not reduce health risks and likely increased
smokers’ risk of lung cancer.)
