Nicotine Manipulation

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Some industry critics accuse us of adding nicotine to our products in order to increase their "addictive" properties. We have also been accused of adding ingredients, which deliver more nicotine into the smoke, which is inhaled. However, and as can be seen from various government reports, the nicotine levels in our products have actually declined substantially over the past quarter century (along with tar). This has been a conscious response to consumer preferences for reduced tar and nicotine products.

The facts

Not only do we not add nicotine but, due to the manufacturing process, there's actually less nicotine in the finished product than in the raw tobacco at the beginning. The suggestion that we sometimes use ingredients such as ammonia to increase the potency of nicotine in tobacco smoke is equally incorrect. None of the ingredients we add to tobacco in the manufacture of cigarettes, to our knowledge, increases the amount of nicotine inhaled by the smoker.