TV REVIEWS : ‘War’ Between Tobacco Industry, FDA Heats Up

America’s favorite whipping boy, the federal government regulator, is about to get whipped as never before in the new, GOP-controlled Congress convening this week. Whether the whipping is deserved is another matter. “Frontline’s” first 1995 report, “The Nicotine War,” implies that the demonization of regulators may be the triumph of politics over reason.

The key regulator in this case is David Kessler, who, as head of the Federal Drug Administration, has been investigating whether or not the tobacco industry has knowingly designed cigarettes to be more and more addictive, and thus ensure a permanently hooked group of customers. The FDA is required by law to regulate all products with drug elements; Kessler’s aim has been to prove that nicotine makes cigarettes a drug product, and that the tobacco industry has known for years that it is.

Kessler’s mission isn’t to ban cigarettes, but to ensure truth-in-advertising, scientifically correct consumer information and, above all, deter teen-agers from getting hooked--and ultimately relieve a health care system burdened with smoking-related illness. “The Nicotine War” painstakingly details how Kessler and his team gathered together damning evidence to bring before Congress last April--and the political fallout that ensued.

The FDA mission wasn’t easy, since the tobacco industry’s manufacturing practices are right up there on the secrecy scale with Coca-Cola’s formula. Tobacco industry officials weren’t about to have those nasty regulators snooping around their factories, so sleuthing was required.

It turned up such crucial witnesses as Dr. Victor DeNoble, whose Philip Morris-funded research to find a nicotine substitute was shut down by the company in 1984. The lab was stripped, files were destroyed and DeNoble was legally prohibited from talking about his work--until Congress allowed him to do so last year. FDA regulator Mitch Zeller provided hard evidence with documents showing that cigarette maker Brown and Williamson had engineered a new, nicotine-rich tobacco plant called Y-1.

Up until the November election, tobacco companies were hard-pressed to explain these and other indicators that they were essentially pushing a drug. Now, with the new Congress entering stage right, tobacco industry supporters on the Hill are in charge. And though Kessler and his FDA team may not feel the heat, “The Nicotine War” isn’t over. The tobacco companies are about to get hit with a class-action suit care of high-powered lawyer Wendel Gauthier and his well-endowed legal army. They may finish the job Kessler began.

* “The Nicotine War” airs tonight at 9 on KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPBS-TV Channel 15; 8 p.m. on KVCR-TV Channel 24.