This is reprehensible

This just goes to show how important it is that corporations be regulated. Today I found an article entitled "Nicotine Boost Was Deliberate, Study Says". Take a look:

Data supplied by tobacco companies strongly suggest that in recent years manufacturers deliberately boosted nicotine levels in cigarettes to more effectively hook smokers, Harvard researchers conclude in a study being released today.

The companies increasingly used tobacco richer in nicotine and made design changes to give smokers more puffs per cigarette, according to the analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health. The report expands on a landmark Massachusetts Department of Public Health study issued last August showing that the amount of nicotine that could be inhaled from cigarettes increased an average of 10 percent from 1998 through 2004.

The Harvard researchers, who corroborated the basic findings of the state study, wanted to determine why cigarettes were delivering more nicotine. The state report did not address causes .
...
"It was systematic, it was pervasive, it involved all the manufacturers, and it was by design," said Dr. Howard Koh, an associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the study.

Another author said that the likelihood that the nicotine increase happened by chance was less than 1 in 1,000.
...
"The tobacco industry is clearly looking to addict people quickly and to keep them heavily addicted by making it really, really hard for them to quit," said Diane Pickles, executive director of the advocacy group Tobacco Free Massachusetts, which was not involved with the study.

The Harvard researchers, as well as antismoking forces, said the study offers compelling evidence that the federal government should regulate tobacco much the way pharmaceuticals are controlled by the US Food and Drug Administration.

I do think we need regulation like that. The tobacco companies are clearly immoral.