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The following transcript is of the DayOne Smoke Screen Segment
broadcast February 28, 1994.

Participants:

            *   Forrest Sawyer, DayOne Moderator

            *   John Martin, DayOne Correspondent

            *   Mike Synar, (D) Oklahoma

            *   Dr. Jack Henningfield

            *   Don Barrett

            *   Van Neuheiser (sp?)

            *   Dr. C Everett Koop, Former US Surgeon General

            *   Bogdan Kopochek (sp?)

            *   Joseph de Bethizy, RJR Scientist

            *   John Robinson, RJR Scientist

            *   Dr. Greg Connolly

            *   Dr. John Slade

            *   Cliff Douglas, American Cancer Society

Sawyer:     Tonight a DayOne investigation that could completely
            transform the tobacco industry.  It was back in 1964
            that the Surgeon General declared cigarettes to be
            hazardous to your health.  After that cigarette
            companies were forced to change the way they labeled
            and advertised their product.  It was the biggest
            challenge the powerful cigarette industry had ever
            faced - until now.

            For nearly a year DayOne has been investigating
            nicotine - the ingredient in cigarettes that keeps
            smokers addicted - and we've discovered that
            cigarette manufacturers had been carefully
            controlling levels of nicotine in cigarettes.

            Late last week, when word of our investigation got
            out, the Food and Drug Administration announced that
            it is now considering whether to regulate cigarettes
            as drugs.  And Congress is planning to hold hearings
            on the issue next month.  Hearings that could be the
            first step toward a ban on cigarettes as they are now
            manufactured.  Clearly the story is just beginning
            and this investigation from John Martin is what
            started the new cigarette war.

Martin:     From these tobacco fields comes one of the world's
            most profitable and addictive substances.

            To many smokers cigarettes are simply leaves rolled
            in white paper.  In reality, cigarettes are a complex
            scientifically engineered product about which little
            is known publicly.

            Do you think the tobacco companies have been open and
            honest with people about what's in their product?

Synar:      Absolutely not.  In fact they've done just the
            opposite.  They've basically blocked any attempts for
            us to give an honest account to the American public
            of the ingredients within the product.

Martin:     One ingredient contained in these tobacco leaves is
            known - Nicotine.  The 1988 Surgeon General's report
            identified nicotine as a highly addictive drug and
            said, this is why smoking can be as difficult to quit
            as heroin or cocaine.

            One of the writers of the report was addiction expert
            Dr. Jack Henningfield.

Henningfield:
            The cigarette is essentially the crack cocaine form
            of nicotine delivery.

Martin:     Now a lengthy DayOne investigation has uncovered
            perhaps the tobacco industry's last best secret - how
            it artificially adds nicotine to cigarettes, to keep
            people smoking and boost profits.

            The methods the cigarette companies use to precisely
            control the levels of nicotine is something that has
            never before been disclosed to consumers or the
            government.

            For years, growing and blending tobacco was an art.
            But about thirty years ago, it began evolving into
            something quite different.

1960's Promotional Film:
            In Liggett and Myers laboratory, modern science makes
            certain that the smoker gets precisely what he
            expects to get.

Martin:     And one thing smokers are supposed to get is
            nicotine.  That was made clear decades ago by a
            Philip Morris official.  He wrote this confidential
            internal memo.

            *   Think of the cigarette pack as a storage
                container for a day's supply of nicotine.

            *   Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose
                unit of nicotine.

            *   Think of a puff of smoke as the vehicle of
                nicotine.

Martin:     It was here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that the
            manufacturing process began to change.

            The RJ Reynolds tobacco company pioneered a two step
            process to make cigarettes more cheaply and to
            control the level of nicotine.

            Step one - It developed reconstituted tobacco, which
            is made from stalks and stems and other waste that it
            used to throw away.

Barrett:    The American public doesn't understand that the
            tobacco - that its not a natural tobacco leaf.  Its
            a, So much of the cigarette is so-called
            reconstituted tobacco, its a manufactured product.

Martin:     Don Barrett sued the American Tobacco Company on
            behalf of a client who has since died of cancer.
            Barrett discovered a great deal about how cigarettes
            are manufactured.

Barrett:    They would take the material, the dust, the tobacco
            dust that fell on the floor and then sweep those up
            and dump them in a big bin and they would use that to
            make the so-called reconstituted tobacco.

Martin:     The processes involved in controlling the nicotine
            level are company secrets.  This former RJR manager
            asked to be interviewed in silhouette.

Unidentified RJR Manager:
            On the average, corporate marketed brands contain
            about 22% reconstituted tobacco.  The cut rate or
            generic brands typically contain usually about double
            that.

Martin:     DayOne commissioned a laboratory analysis that
            confirmed the industry's heavy use of reconstituted
            tobacco.  In one brand from RJR, it comprised a
            quarter of the cigarette.  In another, about a third.

            Even though reconstituted tobacco allows the
            companies to produce cigarettes more cheaply, there
            are problems - poor taste and less nicotine.  So
            here's what the companies do in step two.

            They apply a powerful tobacco extract containing
            nicotine and flavor to the reconstituted tobacco.

            This process too is meant to be secret.  Of the five
            companies we contacted, who supply the extract, only
            one would talk to us on camera.

Neuheiser:  The tobacco people are very secretive on what they
            use.  Some of them, I would think, if you asked them
            if they used tobacco, they might just say they don't,
            you know.

Martin:     Van Neuheiser is a vice president of Doctor Madis
            Laboratories.  He told us how they make this
            concentrated extract that is rich in nicotine.

Neuheiser:  You put the solvent on it - whatever solvent it is,
            water or alcohol - then just percolate it.  And after
            you percolate it you concentrate it.  Its basically
            the same as you have in a drip coffee pot.  Its kind
            of a syrupy consistency, you know, like molasses.

Martin:     Why would the tobacco companies use this nicotine
            rich syrup.

Unidentified RJR Manager:
            They put nicotine in the form of a tobacco extract
            into a product to keep the consumer happy.

Martin:     They're fortifying the product with nicotine.  Is
            that correct?

Unidentified RJR Manager:
            The waste filler?  Yes, they are.

Koop:       Well as you describe that - which I've heard for the
            first time - it makes my blood boil, because what
            they are now selling is not a natural tobacco product
            which happens to have nicotine in it, but they are
            selling a nicotine dispenser.  And that is quite
            different.

Martin:     To try to verify that nicotine is being added to the
            reconstituted tobacco in cigarettes, we went to the
            American Health Foundation, a respected research
            center in Valhalla New York.

            At DayOne's request, the foundation separated and
            then analyzed the reconstituted tobacco portion of
            several brands of RJR cigarettes.  Reconstituted
            tobacco ordinarily contains 25% or less of the
            nicotine in regular tobacco.  But the samples we
            tested had up to 70% of the nicotine that would be
            found in regular tobacco.

            Bogdan Kopochek performed the analysis.

Kopochek:   Well, I was kind of surprised because I excepted it
            to be less.  The most likely explanation is that
            someone has altered it.  Either with flavoring agents
            or ??????.

Martin:     Why are you adding nicotine to your cigarettes?

Bethizy:    We not in any way doing that.

Martin:     You're not adding nicotine?

Bethizy:    No, We, We, We don't do that.

Martin:     Joseph de Bethizy and John Robinson are RJR
            scientists involved in tobacco research.

Martin:     You know about tobacco extracts though?

Bethizy:    I do know about tobacco extracts.  They, They,
            They're er used as flavor materials and and its very
            common in the tobacco industry.

Martin:     But is there nicotine in those?

Bethizy:    Uh, a water extract of tobacco would have nicotine in
            it.  Uh.

Martin:     How much?

Bethizy:    Just like a water extract of of of of the coffee bean
            would have caffeine in it.  Uh, And

Martin:     So - Would this be a little bit or a lot?

Bethizy:    Uh, Uh, Its hard for me to say.  I, I don't know what
            a little bit or a lot would be.  Uh, Uh, But I think
            that Uh

Martin:     How much does it have?

Bethizy:    I think any company involved in the manufacture of
            tobacco Uh, and whose consumers are demanding a wide
            range of tar and nicotine products Uh, They have Uh,
            Uh, blending and reconstituted tobacco techniques for
            reaching those, Uh, that range of of tar and nicotine
            in their products.

Martin:     But how much nicotine is added?  The companies
            control the dosage precisely according to this former
            RJR manager.

            In commercially sold cigarettes, what percentage of
            tobacco extract is nicotine?

Unidentified RJR Manager:
            Uh, That, That really depends on what level the
            process calls for.  In other words, I can say to you,
            I want it at one percent, I want it at five percent,
            I want it at ten percent, I want it at fifteen
            percent.

Martin:     Its this ability to control the exact dosage of
            nicotine with tobacco extract that is so alarming to
            Dr. Greg Connolly, a Massachusetts health official.

Connolly:   Tobacco extract is taking nicotine out of tobacco
            leaf.  Its a drug called nicotine.  Its a euphemism.
            Its like calling heroin, poppy seed oil.  Its a drug.
            Its a drug.  Its a drug.

Martin:     Publicly the companies say they are adding this
            extract just for the flavor but there is evidence to
            contradict that.

            First - an extract industry manager told DayOne
            cigarette makers also use his product to give
            reconstituted tobacco a quote kick.  That kick, he
            says, comes from nicotine.

            Second - Even RJR's own researchers say they believe
            nicotine is a primary reason people smoke.  They have
            identified nicotine's effect on the body, its ability
            to reduce anxiety and increase mental alertness.

            In this 1992 study co-authored by RJR's Dr. Robinson,
            they wrote, the beneficial effects of smoking on
            cognitive performance are a function of nicotine
            absorbed from cigarette smoke.

            In addition, patents owned by the cigarette companies
            show they are well aware of the science of dosing and
            delivering nicotine.

            According to this 1980 patent, obtained by DayOne,
            Loews, the parent company of cigarette maker
            Lorillard, held the rights to a system that is
            especially attractive in enriching the nicotine
            content of reconstituted tobacco.

            Dr. John Slade, an expert in nicotine addiction, has
            researched cigarette patents.

Slade:      My conclusion from looking at this is that the
            tobacco companies have been doing this for a very
            long time - a fine tuning of the nicotine content of
            the products.

Martin:     LTR Industries, a French subsidiary of Kimberly
            Clark, even advertises in a trade journal that its
            process for treating reconstituted tobacco permits
            adjustments of nicotine to your exact requirements.

            There's another way nicotine is added to cigarettes.
            And it begins, perhaps surprisingly at docks like
            this one in Newark, New Jersey.  It is here that
            nearly pure nicotine is brought ashore to be combined
            with alcohol.  Its called denaturing.  The mixture
            can then be applied to tobacco during the
            manufacturing process for, among other things,
            flavoring.

            As these trucking records show, Philip Morris, for
            example, received thousands of gallons of this
            alcohol mixture during the 1980's.  The cigarette
            makers say this mixture leaves only a tiny amount of
            nicotine on the tobacco.  Still any kind of nicotine
            manipulation disturbs critics like Cliff Douglas of
            the American Cancer Society.

Douglas:    The public doesn't know that the industry manipulates
            nicotine, takes it out, puts it back in, uses it as
            if it were sugar being put in candy.  They don't have
            a clue.

Martin:     Neither, apparently, do members of Congress.

Synar:      Well, it disgusts me.

Martin:     Were you aware of that?

Synar:      No, I wasn't.  They don't want anybody looking at
            their product and the reason is exactly what you just
            went through.  So that they can doctor it, they can
            alter it, they can do anything with it.  And they can
            literally jeopardize the health of the American
            public without having any consequence.

Martin:     The tobacco industry boosts that it makes cigarettes
            with various yields of nicotine as demonstrated over
            the years when it tests them on a machine like this
            one.  The industry says the availability of low tar,
            low nicotine cigarettes gives consumers a choice.

Henningfield:
            Scientifically, the low tar, low nicotine cigarette
            notion is basically a scam.

Martin:     Jack Henningfield of the National Institute of Drug
            Abuse, argues that these low yields, for the most
            part, are obtained, not by removing nicotine, but
            rather by using filters and air holes.  But smokers
            get around this he said.

Henningfield:
            They take a few extra puffs.  They inhale a little
            bit more deeply.  They beat the machine.  They beat
            the cigarette.  They get all the nicotine their body
            needs to maintain addiction.

Martin:     Actually, if the companies wanted to take out all the
            nicotine, they could.

            It appears as you could take all the nicotine out
            right now of cigarettes and sell them.  Couldn't you?

Bethizy:    Uh, We have, We have not done that.

Martin:     But you could do it?

Bethizy:    Well, as scientists and engineers here in R&D, I, I
            think that that could be done.  But I, But I think
            the the real issue here here is that, we, as a
            company are providing a legal product to people who
            are looking for a pleasing sensory experience with
            mild pharmacology.

Martin:     So why don't cigarette makers take the nicotine out
            of cigarettes.

Koop:       Because they wouldn't sell cigarettes.  If cigarettes
            didn't give you a bang, they wouldn't sell them.

Martin:     Philip Morris knows this from its own experience.  In
            1991, it test marketed "NEXT", a de-nicotized
            cigarette that it withdrew from the market because
            without nicotine, few smokers would buy it.

            How tobacco companies manipulate nicotine and their
            reluctance to take it out strongly suggests that they
            want smokers to get nicotine and they want them to
            get it in controlled doses.

            Seven months ago when we tried to get a reaction
            about all this from the Food and Drug Administration,
            the agency declined comment, but immediately sent out
            investigators to look into the matter on their own.
            Then, learning of our DayOne broadcast tonight, the
            FDA sent out this letter on Friday.

            Quote, evidence brought to our attention is
            accumulating that suggests the cigarette
            manufacturers may intend that their products contain
            nicotine to satisfy an addiction.

            That's why the FDA says it may have the legal basis
            on which to regulate these products.

Connolly:   If the industry could put nicotine into Nabisco
            Shredded Wheat an get compulsive breakfast eaters,
            I'm sure they'd do it.

Martin:     But they can't, of course.  That's because nicotine
            is regulated in every other form including nicotine
            patches and nicotine gum, which people use to quit
            smoking.  Cigarettes are the exception.  That's
            because the tobacco industry has been highly
            successful in getting Congress to protect it from
            regulation, according to Dr. Connolly, the
            Massachusetts health official.

Connolly:   They exempted the cigarette from the Federal
            Hazardous Substances Act, Controlled Substances Act,
            Toxic Substances Act, Consumer Products Safety Act.
            Every major piece of health legislation since 1964
            has had a specific exemption for cigarettes.

Synar:      The lobby of tobacco is probably one of the most
            pervasive lobbies in Washington DC.  Whenever two
            members of Congress are gathered together, you can
            probably find tobacco money.

Martin:     But the FDA has indicated it doesn't need Congress'
            permission to act though it wants its guidance.  Even
            without legislation, the FDA believes it already has
            the legal authority to act on its own.  And given the
            evidence now under consideration the agency could ban
            all cigarettes with addictive levels of nicotine.  In
            other words, virtually every single cigarette on the
            market.

Koop:       I would think that if I were the administrator of FDA
            and I learned that nicotine was being added to
            cigarettes to increase the amount of nicotine present
            that I would view that cigarette as a delivery device
            for the use of nicotine which is, under ordinary
            circumstances, a prescription drug.  And I would
            think that demanded regulation.

Sawyer:     John, this is really a remarkable story but
            regulation is a very big word.  When they talk about
            regulating the cigarette industry.  What do we mean?

Martin:     It means that the cigarettes would have to be
            certified as safe and effective as any other drug is
            by the Food and Drug Administration.

Sawyer:     What about the cigarettes being sold today?  Can they
            be certified?

Martin:     Many of them could not because they have higher
            levels of nicotine than the Surgeon General has said
            is addictive and I'm certain the FDA would have them
            banned on the market.

Sawyer:     What does the tobacco industry say about all this?

Martin:     Well, they say that they're not really adding
            nicotine.  That they're moving it from one part of
            the tobacco product to another.  And they presumably
            could offer a cigarette that is simply the leaf and
            not this reconstituted filler material.  However,
            that would raise the amount of nicotine and it
            probably wouldn't help them avoid regulation.

Sawyer:     Well, obviously there's a lot more to come here.
            You're still working on this story?

Martin:     We're going full speed ahead this week.

Sawyer:     And we will watch for that next development next
            week.

            John Martin - Thanks very much.

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