
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 15, 1994                   TAG: 9404200008
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press Note: above
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

CIGARETTES: HABIT THAT'S 'PLEASURABLE'

Cigarettes are not an addiction but merely a pleasurable habit, much like a morning cup of coffee or a dessert, the nation's top tobacco executives told Congress Thursday.

But in often angry exchanges, lawmakers charged cigarette makers with trivializing and suppressing information about the health impact of their products.

``You and I both know that Twinkies don't kill a single American,'' said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. ``The difference between cigarettes and Twinkies and the other products you mentioned is death.''

The chiefs of the nation's seven largest tobacco companies spent more than six hours Thursday testifying before the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, which Waxman chairs, about what goes into cigarettes and whether they're dangerous.

The hearing was sparked by the Food and Drug Administration's consideration of whether to regulate cigarettes. If the FDA decides companies manipulate nicotine in cigarettes, it could label the chemical a drug.

The government blames smoking for some 400,000 deaths a year. But the cigarette makers denied there is proof cigarettes cause lung cancer, heart disease and a host of other ailments.

They denied ever manipulating the amount of nicotine in cigarettes and they denied that the chemical is addictive. If it were, they said, 40 million Americans couldn't have kicked the habit since 1974.

``I have a common-sense definition of addiction,'' said Philip Morris President William Campbell. ``I'm a smoker and I'm not a drug addict.''

``We do not do anything to hook smokers or keep them hooked,'' added James Johnston, chairman and chief executive of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. ``We no more manipulate nicotine in cigarettes than coffee makers manipulate caffeine.''

But lawmakers charged that the industry itself has done numerous studies on whether nicotine is addictive or harmful. Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., said a Philip Morris scientist discovered nicotine appeared addictive in 1983, five years before the U.S. surgeon general reached the same conclusion. Campbell said it was the company's right not to publish the study.

Synar and Waxman demanded the companies give the panel all studies, research notes and internal memos about their examination of nicotine.

by CNB