Nicotine and addiction

Nicotine occurs naturally in tobacco leaf. The levels will vary depending upon the growing region, the type of plant and with climatic changes from year to year. Gallaher purchases and blends tobaccos for taste, flavour and quality. The factors affecting the nicotine yields (and, indeed, the smoke yields) of cigarettes, when smoked, include the overall weight of tobacco, the types of tobacco and tobacco sheet (if any) that are used and the constitution of the blend of tobacco present in the rod. The nicotine yield will also be affected by the density of the tobacco rod and the cigarette papers, filters and ventilation techniques that make up any particular brand of cigarettes.

Gallaher does not artificially increase the nicotine content in its cigarettes. Indeed, the manufacturing process used by Gallaher actually reduces the overall nicotine contents of blends relative to unprocessed tobacco. The levels of the nicotine yields of the cigarette brands manufactured by Gallaher, which are measured according to ISO standards, do, of course, vary. The numbers for each brand are printed on the cigarette packets themselves. As the smoke yields of cigarettes have reduced over the years, so have the nicotine yields.

The issue of addiction, which is associated with nicotine, has been the subject of widespread debate with the medical and scientific communities for many years and remains so. Gallaher accepts that the meaning of addiction has been given such a wide interpretation in today's society that it can apply to smoking. The best explanation that Gallaher can provide of what it understands is meant by addiction in a tobacco context is that smoking can be a repetitive course of conduct that for some smokers may be difficult to stop, even though there are well known risks associated with that behaviour. The problem with the word addiction is that its meaning has changed over time. For instance, in 1964 the US Surgeon General described smoking as a habituation, but by 1988 the US Surgeon General included tobacco within his definition of addiction. Gallaher also understands that experts in the area adopt a different approach, see, for instance, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders, IV Edition, which is commonly known as 'DSM-IV', which was published in May 1994 and the 1992 ICD-10 International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems ('ICD-10'). Neither of those classifications uses the word 'addictive' in a tobacco context, but rather focus upon providing guidelines as to what amounts to a 'substance dependence'.

Gallaher is not aware of any medical classification of tobacco addiction as a disease.

From Gallaher's perspective, no matter how smoking is termed - addiction or habit - the question is whether or not people can give up smoking. Whilst for some smoking can be a very strong habit, millions of people have given up in the UK, Ireland, the European Union and elsewhere globally. People give up smoking at different times in their lives with different motivations. People can choose to smoke; they can choose to stop, even if some people find it much more difficult to do so than others.

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