sample="rhetorical" bates="2048778369" isource="pm" decade="1990" class="ue" date="19951018" PHILIP MORRIS U.S.A. Corporate Affairs 120 Park Avenue New York, New York 10017 (212) 880-5000 FAX (212) 907-5361 NEWS RELEASE Contact: Dolly Colby 212-878-2144 STATEMENT BY PHILIP MORRIS U.S.A. October 18, 1995 Philip Morris U.S.A. today issued the following statement in response to today's story about ammonia in The Wall Street Journal. Ammonia is naturally present in tobacco. Several ammonia compounds also are used in the cigarette manufacturing process as processing aids and flavorants. For example, Philip Morris U.S.A. uses diammonium phosphate (DAP), an ammonia-related compound, to hold tobacco pieces together when making one type of reconstituted tobacco sheet. Reconstituted tobacco has been used for over 25 years as part of the tobacco blend in cigarettes. Philip Morris U.S.A. also uses several ammonia compounds to give a flavor or feel similar to what one feels in the throat from the carbonation of a soft drink, the "hot" in chili peppers, or the "cool feeling" of mint. Such ammonia flavorants is not unique to Philip Morris U.S.A. or the cigarette industry. Ammonia compounds are used in a variety of consumer products including beverage, ice cream, ices, gelatin, puddings, and baked goods. Philip Morris U.S.A.'s use of ammonia compounds has been public knowledge for many years. Those manufacturing processes that utilize ammonia compounds have been described in published articles and patents which were filed with the government. Further, the tobacco industry list of ingredients submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services since 1986 includes the ammonia compounds used by Philip Morris U.S.A. Contrary to speculation in The Wall Street Journal, Philip Morris U.S.A. does not use ammonia in the cigarette manufacturing process to increase the amount of nicotine inhaled by the smoker or to "affect the rate of absorption of nicotine into the bloodstream of the smoker," or to "increase the potency of the nicotine a smoker actually inhales." If, as The Wall Street Journal asserts, Philip Morris U.S.A. were using ammonia to increase nicotine deliveries of lower tar cigarettes, one would expect that as tar and nicotine deliveries of Marlboro have fallen over the past twenty years, ammonia level would have increased. But that is simply not the case; over the past 25 years, the amount of ammonia has remained nearly constant. This, of course, is precisely the opposite of what one would expect if, as The Wall Street Journal and others have charged, Philip Morris U.S.A. were using ammonia to "enhance nicotine delivery to smokers." # # # MARLBORO BENSON & HEDGES MERIT VIRGINIA SLIME PARLIAMENT LIGHTS CAMBRIDGE ALPINE PLAYERS SARATOGA