22nd Century Limited, a plant biotechnology company, has announced that genetically-modified tobacco plants with enriched-nicotine content are being grown under the company's direction for use in producing a potential reduced-exposure product (PREP).

These efforts align with evidence from human-smoking research studies which suggest that enriching the nicotine content of tobacco, and therefore cigarette smoke, may potentially reduce the health risks associated with smoking, the company says.
According to the company, tobacco plants engineered with 22nd Century's technology are capable of delivering various nicotine levels, from virtually none to greater than twice the levels of conventional tobacco varieties presently used in commercial cigarettes. New and autonomous plant lines can reportedly be created with even small incremental variations in their respective nicotine contents. These new cultivars will facilitate and expedite advanced tobacco breeding, better tobacco blending, new product development, and cigarette product testing.
The objective of 22nd Century's risk-reduction strategy is to enrich the nicotine levels in cigarette smoke so that smokers will inhale less tar and carbon monoxide. This strategy is based on the accepted ‘self-regulation of nicotine intake’ model or the ‘nicotine titration’ model, as it is also referred to. The UK Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health cautiously recommended this strategy in its Fourth Report in 1988.
Today's cigarette brands generally yield (as measured by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) method) approximately 10-14 parts tar to 1 part nicotine. 22nd Century's nicotine-enriched tobacco cultivars would allow the tar/nicotine yield ratio of a cigarette to be reduced to about 5 parts tar to 1 part nicotine, the company states. 22nd Century does not anticipate per cigarette FTC tar and nicotine yields utilising the company's nicotine-enriched tobacco technology to be greater than 10 mg tar or 1.3 mg nicotine. (ci)