TOBACCO GIANT: WE ADD ADDICTIVE 'KICK'

Cigarettes have been doctored with ammonia to make them more addictive,
internal tobacco industry documents reveal.

The use of ammonia is one of seven methods the industry uses to increase
the "nicotine kick" and addictiveness of cigarettes, the industry documents
reveal.

Ammonia is on the list of more than 150 chemicals, including alcohol and
benzene derivatives, that manufacturer Philip Morris International admitted
to using to change the taste, marketability and absorption of cigarettes.

After years of pressure from anti-tobacco groups, Philip Morris informed
the Federal Health Department and posted the list on its Web site yesterday.

"This disclosure is an important step in our ongoing effort to work
constructively with the Government, the public health community and others
to address issues concerning tobacco use in our society," said a statement
from the company.

Such a list had previously been supplied to the government of British
Columbia in Canada, which is seen, along with Australia, as one of the
strongest nations for anti-smoking activity.

The key to the use of ammonia is the blood-brain barrier, a fatty layer
around blood vessels which prevents some chemicals from being absorbed into
the brain. Generally, alkaline chemicals cross the blood-brain barrier more
quickly than acidic chemicals.

Internal tobacco company documents, gradually coming to light after a
settlement two years ago between 46 states in the United States and eight
tobacco bodies, reveal a host of methods used to increase the alkalinity of
cigarettes.

"Methods which may be used to increase smoke pH and nicotine 'kick' include
... use of alkaline additives, usually ammonia compounds ... removal of
acids from the blend [and] special filter systems to remove acids from or
add alkaline materials to the smoke," one industry document, published last
year in the journal Tobacco Control, says.

Associate Professor Simon Chapman, editor of Tobacco Control, compared the
addition of ammonia with techniques used in illegal drug manufacture. "The
changes they make are like changing cocaine to crack cocaine - it's all
designed to get the drug to the brain that much faster, which makes it more
addictive," he said.

Other industrial chemicals added to tobacco include five different benzene
derivatives. The cigarette paper uses chemicals such as dibutyl phthalate,
an insect repellant.