Massachusetts Law Will Require
Cigarette Ingredient List
BOSTON - Massachusetts is about to become the first state to require the tobacco industry to divulge the exact ingredients -from chocolate to ammonia - in each brand of cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco. Tobacco lobbyists complain the law is illegal, forcing them to reveal trade secrets to competitors. Besides, they say, the industry has already handed over a list of 599 ingredients found in cigarettes. But anti-smoking activists say the list does not give the exact amounts in each brand - critical in determining whether some cigarettes are more harmful than others. And they say letting people know exactly what they are inhaling, or chewing, would be a powerful way to get them to stop.The result of the bill, passed by the Senate 39-0 last Thursday (7/25/96), may be public disclosure of "The List" of cigarette additives for the first time in history. Though manufacturers revealed their additives to the government in 1994, they were allowed to present a compiled list of 599--with no brands or amounts specified. In addition, the list was kept secret from the public. The Tolman bill (Sen. Warren Tolman, D-Waterford is chief sponsor) would require manufacturers to present their information to the Mass. Department of Public Health, which could then release the list to the public. Every food and every drug has to list its ingredients and tobacco products will now be held to the same standard, Tolman said.
©1996 Gene Borio, the Tobacco BBS
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