Tobacco companies aimed to keep smokers hooked, court told

Cigarette makers boosted nicotine levels and added ammonia to their product to make sure smokers became addicted, a former chief of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr David Kessler, testified in the District Court of Washington, DC, last Thursday.

Dr Kessler was the first witness in the federal government's $280bn (£155bn; €230bn) civil racketeering case against various tobacco companies. He described the industry's efforts to make cigarettes more effective as nicotine delivery devices, efforts that came to light in the FDA's 1994-5 investigation into whether cigarettes should be regulated as drugs.

According to Dr Kessler's written testimony, cigarette makers …