Tobacco Documents Online

This report from the Lorillard tobacco company discusses means of increasing "free" nicotine in tobacco. Nicotine in "free" form (as opposed to "bound" nicotine) is more readily absorbed by the smoker. The reason tobacco companies value free nicotine in tobacco is because it produces an "organoleptic effect" in the smoker. Dorland's Ilustrated Medical Dictionary (25th Edition) defines "organoleptic" as "making an impression on an organ of special sense." Many interpret this as the drug-effect of nicotine.

The document states that as tar levels decrease in cigarettes, so too does the amount of nicotine. Therefore, "the smoker desires more organoleptic effect than the low tar cigarette delivers." Lorillard wanted to enhance the organoleptic effect of nicotine by increasing the amount of free nicotine in smoke. They mention several ways of doing this, the most promising of which was treating tobacco with ammonia or ammonium ion. They determined this was inexpensive and safer than adding metal alkali.

Also of interest is the fact that they mention that treating tobacco with ammonia decreases its combustibility. This may be a reason why tobacco companies add chemicals to cigarette paper that keep cigarettes burning.

This internal Lorillard Tobacco Company memo from 1981 introduces Lorillard's estimates of the number of U.S. smokers in eleven different age goups--starting at age 13.

This document was used as a trial exhibit in Minnesota and Washington to demonstrate the industry's interest in child-smokers.

Reports on a scientific test done on yeast to explore the "cell death response to smoke." Notes that cell death "is not an important factor." Notes that cells go into respiratory arrest when exposed to cigarette smoke.

These handwritten notes on studies of college students links puffing patterns to personality traits. The notes say that short-interval puffers have "Higher intelligence, more immaturity, a tendency to be submissive...to be timid rather than thick-skinned, to be more naive rather than sophisticated, to show less will power in general (that's good--means their unlikely to quit)..." "They are young people who are obviously not very sure of themselves and who display their personalities by their puffing."

The following Lorillard Tobacco Company document shows that the tobacco industry is interested in the relationship between nicotine levels and cigarette sales. Similar graphs are found on other document sites as well, like Philip Morris. Such documents, along with others that describe programs to manipulate nicotine levels (like Lorillard's Nicotine Augmentation Program), strongly infer that tobacco companies would titrate the nicotine content of their products to create optimum sales.

October 1980 RJR report to Jerry Moore from Kay Duffy regarding teenage smokers (14-17) and new adult smokers and quitters. Analyses data gathered by the National Family Organization (NFO), which has been used by RJR since 1965 to track adult smoker profiles and switching information, for product testing. States that "no special effort is made to gather this data and it is not to be used for marketing strategy purposes." Key findings include that RJR's share of teenage smokers is stable at 20.2% (Spring 1980) but that RJR continues to lose share points due to aging (at about age 18). Finds that males and 18-24 year old smokers are most active in both quitting and starting. Analyzes smoking behavior of 14-17 year old group, showing slight declines in smoking incidence and rate per day, and that male teenagers' volume decreases faster than females. Analyzes market shares among groups.