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FREE-BASING OF NICOTINE[8.4.1]
New Study Confirms Need for FDA Jurisdiction
A new study confirming that ammonia can substantially boost the impact of nicotine in cigarettes has just been released. It reinforces previous findings of the FDA and, even more importantly, shows the critical need for the FDA to retain its full authority to regulate tobacco products. " The chemical process used to treat nicotine with ammonia, known as free-basing, is similar to that used to produce the powerful, highly addictive form of cocaine known as crack," researcher James F. Pankow reportedly told the Washington Post. Excerpts from that report follow: A new study provides new evidence that ammonia can dramatically boost the impact of nicotine in cigarettes.
The research provides confirmation of assertions made by the Food and Drug Administration, both in 1994 congressional testimony and in its landmark tobacco regulation. The FDA cited widespread use of ammonia compounds in cigarette manufacturing as evidence that the industry manipulated nicotine delivery in tobacco products. The agency relied in part on that finding when it asserted jurisdiction over cigarettes.
"It [the new study] confirms what we had heard before -- that ammonia is added solely for the purpose of enhancing the nicotine," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who held the 1994 hearings. It underscores the fact that the FDA's got to be able to regulate nicotine as a drug" in tobacco products, a key point of contention in the settlement proposal now being debated in Congress.
The new research, by James F. Pankow of the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, is being published in Environmental Science and Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society. Pankow conducted a series of laboratory studies to explore how ammonia compounds affect the chemical properties of nicotine.
The chemical process used to treat nicotine with ammonia, known as free-basing, is similar to that used to produce the powerful, highly addictive form of cocaine known as crack, Pankow said.
When Kessler testified about ammonia, and about a secret Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. program to develop a high-nicotine tobacco plant, Kessler said the findings "lay to rest any notion that there is no manipulation and control of nicotine."
"We were relying on basic laws of chemistry and the industry's own documents." Still, Kessler said, "it's important to have the science confirm what we said."