Firm Adds Nicotine to Cigarettes, Brief Says

Secret Philip Morris documents indicate the company runs a “tobacco extract factory” that adds nicotine to cigarettes in precise measurements, argues a legal brief under court seal.

The brief, obtained by the Associated Press, contradicts Philip Morris testimony before Congress and prompted a lawmaker to demand Monday that company executives explain the discrepancies to a congressional committee.

“These documents completely contradict the sworn testimony,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles).

“We used to think that nicotine was a simple byproduct of an agricultural product,” he said. “Now we’re seeing that the level of nicotine is very precisely spelled out.”

The brief, written by lawyers for ABC-TV a month before the network settled its libel suit with Philip Morris last summer, purports to quote Philip Morris employee manuals and other documents saying the company extracts nicotine from tobacco that it throws away and then adds this new nicotine to other tobacco batches.

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Philip Morris attorney Michael York called the accusations “preposterous” and noted that ABC a month later apologized for reporting that the company spiked its cigarettes with nicotine.

The documents cited in the brief remain under seal in state court in Richmond, Va., so the brief’s assertions could not be independently verified.

“Philip Morris adds a nicotine-containing solution--manufactured from some other tobacco--to that original tobacco material,” the brief reads. “This bears repeating: The nicotine applied is derived from another source.”

The brief also quotes an employee training manual instructing workers to measure the amount of nicotine and other chemicals in the tobacco as it is being processed “once per hour to ensure they are within specified ranges.”

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Philip Morris told Congress in 1994 that it merely adds back to tobacco the natural nicotine that literally floats out as it is processed, and that it only measures nicotine content twice, in raw tobacco and finished cigarettes.

York insisted Monday that the brief doesn’t prove otherwise.

And while all the extracts are measured once an hour, nicotine is not singled out and the amount eventually added back to tobacco is 15% to 20% lower than that found in raw tobacco, he said.

However, Waxman said that the brief, if accurate, could give new ammunition to Justice Department investigators probing whether Philip Morris lied to Congress in 1994 when it insisted that the company does not control nicotine levels in cigarettes.

Waxman, who chaired those hearings, said he would ask now-ranking Republicans this week to recall then-Philip Morris chief executive William Campbell to explain the discrepancies.

York said Campbell told the truth.

ABC attorney Roger Witten, who co-wrote the brief, said he could not comment on sealed documents.