Cigarettes Contain
Over 600 Secret
Ingredients & Additives
By Tom Baldwin Deputy Political Editor - The Times
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/00/02/10/timnwsnws01047.html?999
2-10-2000

Original link

http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/00/02/10/timnwsnws01047.html?999

Tobacco firms have admitted putting 600 secret
ingredients and additives in cigarettes, the Health
Secretary disclosed yesterday.

Alan Milburn promised that the list would be published in
full within weeks so that consumers, for the first time,
would "know what they are smoking."

His comments at a meeting of the Commons Health
Committee came ahead of a European directive on
tobacco, that will put new ceilings on nicotine and carbon
monoxide levels, increase the size of warnings and
restrict the use of "mild" or "low tar" to describe cigarette
brands.

Although tobacco companies had promised the previous
Government that they would provide the Department of
Health with a full list of additives, Mr Milburn said that
he had only just received the dossier.

The ingredients include sucrose, cocoa, citric acid and
ammonium - which speeds up the nicotine "hit".

Stephen Hesford, a Labour member of the committee,
suggested later that the additives also included cynanide
and lead.

Mr Milburn said that "until very recently nobody knew
about any of these ingredients", adding that he was
demanding further information from the tobacco
companies so that they could show which brands
contained the additives.

"It is our intention to put that information on the Health
Department's website before too long. People have a
right to decide whether or not to smoke, but they also
have a right to know what they are smoking," he said.

The EU directive, to be published next week, will take
effect in 2003.