Tobacco Industry Just Can't Quit
Posted by
Patrick DeBlaseAugust 31, 2006 4:20 PMNicotine levels in cigarettes are up by about 10% from 1998 to 2004 according to the Massachusetts Department of Health.
Well into their national feel-good campaign to "educate" the public on smoking, a new study released on Tuesday shows conduct within the Tobacco Industry is business as usual. A Massechusetts Department of Health study released today shows that the amount of nicotine delivered to the lungs of smokers, regardless of brand, is increasing at an alarming rate.
The study http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=pressreleases&agId=Eeohhs2&prModName=dphpressrelease&prFile=pr_060829_nicotine.xml revealed overall nicotine yields increased by about 10%. Some brands were significantly higher - like Kool which rose a whopping 20%. Nicotine is the addictive drug that hooks people into a lifetime of smoking. Smoking-related deaths well-exceed 200,000 per year. Studies show that the earlier a person is hooked on cigarettes the more difficult it is later in life to quit smoking.
The study displays the true nature of the Tobacco Industry because the only reason to increase nicotine levels is to hook more and more people on a product that may result in death.
"The reports are stunning," said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "What's critical is the consistency of the increase, which leads to the conclusion that it has to have been conscious and deliberate."
First reported in the Boston Globe, the news of the report traveled quickly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weighed in via email to the Washington Post:
"We know nicotine is addictive, so if the amount of nicotine in cigarettes is increasing, it could make it even harder for the 70 percent of smokers who want to quit and the more than 40 percent who try to quit every year," Corinne Husten, acting director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said in an e-mail message.
Despite the overt advertising of the Tobacco Industry, its age-old business plan of selling death by hooking people on cigarettes is firmly entrenched.