Introduction

The documents include a number of discussions by B&W officials concerning the chemicals used in the growing and storage of tobacco (agricultural chemicals, such as sucker control agents, pesticides, and fumigants) and in cigarette manufacture (additives). Thirty years ago, B&W officials made genuine attempts to ensure that the agricultural chemicals and additives used in their products were nontoxic, and they expected the suppliers or makers of these materials to take responsibility for ensuring safety. Company officials in this era expressed specific concerns about the possibility that the combustion products of additives might themselves be toxic. More recent documents have a more defensive character, with officials frequently pointing out that a material in question has been declared "Generally Recognized as Safe" (GRAS) for use in food, either by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers' Association (FEMA). Additives on these lists, however, are declared safe in a product that is eaten, not in one that is burned to generate an inhaled smoke. As discussed later in this chapter, Dr. R. B. Griffith, B&W's director of research, recognized in 1967 that a material considered safe when eaten is not necessarily safe in other forms, particularly when it is burned and inhaled in smoke.

Unlike additives to foods, additives to tobacco products are not subject to government regulation in the United States. Since the mid-1980s the cigarette manufacturers have been required to submit a list of tobacco additives used in cigarettes to the Department of Health and Human Services (1), but the department is barred from publishing the list. Moreover, the manufacturers are not required to specify which brands of cigarettes use which particular additives. Quantitative information is similarly lacking. The tobacco companies are not required to disclose anything at all about additives to cigarette papers (such as fillers and adhesives) or to filters (such as plasticizers). In April 1994 public pressure forced the major cigarette makers to publish a version of this list (2), which included 599 materials that might, or might not, be added to any particular brand of cigarettes.

The first page of a file memo dated November 1, 1988 (probably from B&W's law firm in Louisville), provides the following nonexhaustive classification of nontobacco materials that might be found in cigarettes:

flavors
sugars
humectants
casings or sauce materials
insecticides
herbicides
fungicides
rodenticides
pesticides
water conditioners
manufacturing machine lubricants and other chemicals which come in contact with the tobacco and may leave residues on the tobacco {1324.01}

While this classification gives the reader some idea of the range of materials that find their way into cigarettes, the list does not include additives to papers or to filters.

The tobacco industry has used a wide range of additives in cigarettes for decades. Documents dating from as early as April 1965 show that BAT had an "Additives Guidance Panel" to discuss issues related to additive toxicity. In at least one instance B&W continued using an additive even when research suggested that it might pose a health risk to consumers and the panel advised against its use.