Cigarettes With "Nothing Artificial Added"

Cigarettes are more than shredded tobacco wrapped in paper. Additives are required for the tobacco, the papers, and the filter for a variety of purposes. The core need for some additives in modern cigarettes is revealed in a July 1977 memorandum summarizing a meeting at which B&W executives critically examined the claim "nothing artificial added" that RJR was then making about its new brand, Real {1311.01}. Real brand cigarettes had been launched by RJR in 1975, and a menthol version was marketed in 1977. Real contained glycerin (which could have been derived from natural sources) as a humectant; it also contained sugars (and possibly flavorings) for casing the tobacco used in the blend. The menthol version of Real might have contained natural menthol, but that was not yet clear to the B&W group.

B&W could match the RJR claim with a new brand if need be, and it could even use a claim of "all natural flavors." However, the use of "such artificial elements as cellulose acetate, plasticizers, freon, propylene glycol, humectants and some flavors" would preclude the assertion of a "pure organic" claim {1311.01, p. 1}. Propylene glycol, a manufactured chemical commonly used as a humectant by both B&W and RJR, could not be used in a cigarette claiming "nothing artificial added." Tobacco extracts were felt to be "nature identical" at best. Their use in a cigarette would preclude a claim of that brand's being "natural" {1311.01, p. 2}.

The observation that tobacco extracts are not "natural" runs counter to the impression sometimes given by tobacco companies that tobacco extracts are, simply, a form of tobacco. In 1988, when RJR explained its novel nicotine delivery device, Premier, to the scientific community, it described the tobacco extract used in the product as "spray dried tobacco" (13). This phrase was used to suggest that the extract was tobacco, just as certainly as tobacco leaf was. The contrary view expressed privately a decade earlier by B&W scientists in Louisville contradicts this contention.