FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, January 15, 1996

Previously-secret tobacco industry documents seem to show that Philip Morris [PM] ran a "tobacco extract factory" which added nicotine to cigarettes.

Moreover, the leak of a key legal brief filed under seal with the court hearing a libel suit against ABC-TV shows that the network's lawyers had these documents, but nevertheless caved into PM's demands for an expensive settlement and the issuance of a public apology for claiming that PM "spiked" cigarettes with nicotine.

ABC's lawyers told the court that "Philip Morris adds tobacco extract that is derived from tobacco material not used to make cigarettes." Its reconstituted tobacco plant "is a tobacco extract factory, no different from the outside flavor houses that were referred to on [the program] Day One to illustrate this point."

"Philip Morris adds a nicotine-containing solution -- manufactured from some other tobacco -- to that original tobacco material or tobacco sheet." "This," ABC's lawyers said, "bears repeating: The nicotine applied is derived from another source."

More specifically, the brief charges that PM soaks tobacco fibers used in cigarettes in a nicotine-containing solution called "rich brown water." It also allegedly sprays on more nicotine-containing extract if the measured ratio is too low.

PM admits that it uses "rich brown water," and that it does measure soluble levels both on the tobacco sheet and in the extracted solutions, but it insists that none of its actions are nefarious. However, the specific description of the process by ABC seems to contradict statements previously made by the tobacco company.

Thus, says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), these latest revelations may provide even more evidence in a continuing grand jury investigation by the Department of Justice into whether PM executives committed perjury or deliberately mislead federal officials. They also further bolster the case now being made by the FDA that the industry was aware of the drug effects of nicotine, and sought to make use of them to addict smokers.

ASH is the national antismoking organization which the tobacco industry has charged in court was primarily responsible for the FDA's proposal to regulate cigarette advertising and promotions directed towards children.

More information about the ABC memo may be found in today's issue of the Legal Times in an article entitled "Philip Morris v. ABC: The Case ABC Never Made."

ASH - ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH 2013 H Street, NW / Washington, DC 20006 / (202) 659-4310