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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 27, 1995                   TAG: 9504270055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

STUDIES RENEW NICOTINE DEBATE

New research contends teen-agers start on low-nicotine chewing tobacco and graduate to stronger brands that, because of gradual chemical changes in the recipe, have the potential to release more nicotine into their bloodstream.

The studies released Wednesday promise to rekindle the debate over whether tobacco companies manipulate nicotine levels to make their products more addictive.

The tobacco industry furiously denied the accusation, and the nation's largest chewing-tobacco manufacturer dismissed the new studies as a rehash of old criticisms.

The American Medical Association and other tobacco critics used the research to renew their calls for a government crackdown.

Smokeless tobacco is ``a ticking time bomb in the mouths of millions of young people,'' said Gregory Connolly of the Coalition on Smoking Or Health.

The studies were reported Wednesday in the journal Tobacco Control. They document for the first time the different pH levels - a measure of acidity and alkalinity - of 17 brands of smokeless tobacco and their resulting increases in easily absorbed nicotine, and show how teen-agers move from the mildest to the strongest brands.

Among the findings:

Scientists already knew acidic tobacco releases nicotine into the bloodstream far more slowly than alkaline tobacco. U.S. firms have denied manipulating acidity for nicotine release. But Connolly quoted a new Swedish Tobacco Co. publication that says the industry adds chemicals to increase products' alkalinity ``in order to release the nicotine from the tobacco.''

Connolly also pointed to industry documents given to Congress last fall that show a U.S. Tobacco Co. marketing plan to introduce young people to its mildest brand, Skoal Bandit, and slowly ``graduate'' them to the strongest, Copenhagen.

Two laboratories, at the National Institutes of Health and the American Health Foundation, independently measured the acidity of smokeless tobacco brands and the ``free nicotine'' in them. As tobacco loses its acidity, it frees more nicotine from chemical binds so it can pass through the mouth's membranes into the bloodstream.

Skoal Bandit was 1,000 times more acidic than Copenhagen. And the free nicotine rose 17 times as the brands' pH increased, from 7 percent in Skoal Bandit to 79 percent in Copenhagen.

by CNB