Biotech Tobacco Poised for Approval

http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/02/17/biotech.cigarettes.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- From cereal to corn chips, Americans consume a
variety of products made from genetically engineered crops. They can soon
add cigarettes to the list -- new smokes are due this spring with tobacco
genetically altered to be very low in nicotine. A new Agriculture Department
study confirmed the low levels of nicotine, the chemical that gets smokers
hooked, in the biotech tobacco and found that the crop poses little risk to
the environment. Tobacco from crops grown on department-supervised test
plots last summer is going into the cigarettes made by Vector Group, parent
company of cigarette maker Liggett Group.

The company has asked the Agriculture Department to remove restrictions on
where and how the tobacco can be grown, and the agency probably will
go along. The tobacco was genetically altered to block the production of
nicotine in the plant's roots.

"This thing could be a home run and it could flop. We think the odds are
that it is going to be a successful product," said Donald Trott, an analyst
with the brokerage firm Jefferies and Company Inc.

Vector, which makes Eve-brand cigarettes as well as various generic and
discount lines, has not said where it will sell the biotech cigarettes
beginning in the spring or what they will be called.

Trott said people who have tried the cigarettes say they light, smoke
and taste like ordinary cigarettes. Government approval would make the
tobacco one of the first biotech crops to have a consumer use. Gene-altered
soy, the most common biotech crop, can be sprayed with weed killer without
killing it. Other crops resist pests or diseases.

Critics fear more smoking

Tobacco industry critics fear low-nicotine cigarettes could encourage more
smoking. "A nicotine-free free cigarette could still deliver very high
levels of harmful toxic substances," said Matthew Meyers, president
of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Many tobacco farmers and Vector's rival cigarette manufacturers are
concerned about the product, too. Growers say the biotech tobacco
could get mixed with conventional leaf and jeopardize U.S. exports.
"It is a big issue. It has the potential to change tobacco and
tobacco production and the production controls that we have had on tobacco
for many years," said Larry Wooten, a partner in a tobacco farm and president
of the North Carolina Farm Bureau. "Many of our farmers are not, I would
say, aware of the serious implications that this has."

The government traditionally has controlled tobacco prices and production
through the use of quotas, which entitle the owners to market a given
amount of leaf each year. Penalties on nonquota tobacco make it uneconomical
to grow in the handful of states that have quotas, such as North Carolina and
Kentucky, so Vector is setting up production elsewhere.

The company grew the crop on 5,200 acres in Pennsylvania, Illinois,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Iowa and Hawaii. About two-thirds of the crop
was grown on several dozen Amish and Mennonite farms in Pennsylvania that
traditionally grow the conventional leaf.

Company officials say there is no danger of contaminating conventional
tobacco because the biotech version is grown and handled separately
from conventional crops.

The tobacco "always remained in Vector's direct control, all the way
through to final production," Vector spokeswoman Carrie Bloom said.
The Agriculture Department tests found small amounts of nicotine in
the Vector tobacco of about 400 to 1,000 parts per million. Conventional
tobacco has 20,000 to 30,000 parts per million.

During last summer's test, the tobacco fields had to be isolated from
conventional tobacco and flowers were removed from the plants to
prevent them from cross-pollination. The department says there is little
chance the biotech crops could become weeds or otherwise damage the
environment.

The Vector tobacco is more susceptible to insect damage because of
the smaller amount of nicotine, which serves as a pesticide in conventional
plants, said Jim White, a scientist for the department's Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service.

The department will take comments from the tobacco industry and other
interested groups before deciding to release the tobacco from
regulation.