Again and again, the documents demonstrate the central importance of nicotine to the normal use of tobacco products. The dose of nicotine absorbed by the consumer is a factor to be considered in product design. Taste is irrelevant to nicotine as it is discussed in these documents. Sensory panels occasionally described in the documents were not asked to measure taste. Whereas taste is irrelevant, the documents demonstrate that inhalation is essential to the normal functioning of a cigarette.
Inhalation is essential for nicotine absorption from a cigarette.
It has no other purpose. While the public posture has been that nicotine is not addicting and the company does not intend any of the pharmacological effects that occur, the internal writings consistently assume addiction and throughout demonstrate a keen interest in all aspects of the pharmacology of nicotine. The contract work and the internal company research projects reviewed here have not been published in the scientific literature. Often, the work was well ahead of its time. The Battelle work in Geneva was at the cutting edge of pharmacological work on nicotine at the time.