Tobacco firms publish cherished secrets

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The tobacco industry yesterday made public a long-secret list of 599 cigarette ingredients as a Congressional critic released a report that he said supported charges that the industry manipulated nicotine levels.

The tobacco industry, which for years guarded the chemical lists as a trade secret, said independent experts had deemed them safe in the quantities used.

But California Democrat Henry Waxman said:

'I wouldn't trust these so-called independent experts the tobacco industry has paraded out to the public and the Congress over the years to tell us things like tobacco smoking is really good for you because it relaxes you, or there is no connection between cigarette smoking and addiction, and of course their latest one that they don't manipulate the nicotine levels.'

RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co, one of the leading cigarette makers, said 98 per cent of the ingredients were approved as food additives by the Food and Drug Administration.