BOSTON – Philip Morris USA is disputing a study conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that suggests nicotine in cigarettes has increased by about 10 percent in the past six years, reports the Associated Press.
According to Philip Morris, the company found “fluctuations up and down in nicotine levels, but not a steady increase, after a review of nine years of data they have provided to Massachusetts about their cigarettes,” notes the news source
“There are variations in the nicotine yield for different Marlboro packings, both up and down from year to year, but there is no general trend up or down,” notes a company statement, adding that when the company reviewed the data it submitted to the state, there were only year-to-year variations “that occur as part of the normal processes of growing tobacco and manufacturing cigarettes.”
The AP notes that Massachusetts is one of three states that require tobacco companies to submit information about nicotine testing according to its specifications “and the only state with data going back to 1997.”
Meanwhile, Department of Public Health spokeswoman Donna Rheaume defended the state’s report, which found that higher nicotine levels in cigarettes “made it easier” for smokers to get hooked on cigarettes and “harder to quit.”
“We stand by our study, which was based on data supplied by the tobacco companies,” Rheaume told the AP.
Philip Morris also commented that the machines used to determine nicotine levels in cigarettes are flawed, and that other health organizations “have argued against the practice.”
Michael Neese, spokesman for Philip Morris, told the AP that the information the cigarette company used “not only looked back over all nine years of data sent to the Department of Public Health, but included 2005 data, which was delivered to the health department in November and showed a slight decline in nicotine levels in Marlboro cigarettes.”
“We do not believe the conclusions about the trends in nicotine yields in Marlboro cigarettes are supported by the 1997 to 2005 data that Philip Morris submitted to the Department of Public Health,” Neese told the news source.