
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994                    TAG: 9406220469 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A1    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS 
DATELINE: 940622                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

TOBACCO GENES SECRETLY ALTERED\

{LEAD} A major company secretly developed a genetically engineered tobacco that would more than double the amount of nicotine delivered in some cigarettes, the commissioner of food and drugs said Tuesday.

The commissioner, Dr. David A. Kessler, told a congressional hearing that the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. secretly developed the tobacco and grew it in Brazil.

{REST} In May the company had denied to an investigator in the Food and Drug Administration that it had engaged in ``any breeding of tobacco for high or low nicotine levels,'' Kessler said. However, when confronted with evidence to the contrary Friday, it conceded that it had at least 3 million pounds of the specially developed tobacco, named Y-1, in company warehouses in the United States. The company began using Y-1 in five cigarette brands last year.

The company had applied for a U.S. patent for Y-1, but pulled its application and removed its sample seeds from the National Seed Storage Laboratory in March, just after the FDA announced its investigation of tobacco companies, Kessler said.

The FDA chairman also said Tuesday that among the 599 ingredients added to tobacco, a list made public in April, were several ammonia compounds.

``One company's documents confirm that one of the intended purposes is to manipulate nicotine delivery to the smoker,'' he said. ``It is our understanding that an experimental cigarette . . . treated with ammonia has almost double the nicotine transfer efficiency.''

Nicotine is the key to keeping smokers smoking because it is addictive, and tobacco companies know this, Kessler said. He quoted from a B&W memo in which an executive said the company was ``in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug.''

Referring to Tuesday's testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, Kessler said, ``These findings lay to rest any notion that there is no manipulation and control of nicotine undertaken in the tobacco industry.''

B&W said the FDA had exaggerated its work on the new tobacco plant and ignored information the company had given the agency. The company said products using Y-1 had the same or lower nicotine content as regular cigarettes. The company said it had discontinued the use of Y-1 several weeks ago.

{KEYWORDS} GENETIC ENGINEERING by CNB