1.   Although grilled on this point by David Kessler, then the FDA commissioner, Spears insisted that nicotine levels were not being manipulated.

2.   Also unresolved is placing a limit on how far the Food and Drug Administration can go in reducing nicotine levels.

3.   Anti-tobacco groups involved in landmark litigation settlement talks with U.S. tobacco companies are divided on whether to press for reduced nicotine levels in cigarettes.

4.   At that plant, nicotine levels were frequently measured and the production process altered so that the company could back up its assertions about nicotine reduction.

5.   A bill to ban smoking in public, outlaw all tobacco advertising and regulate nicotine levels in cigarettes is about to become law here.

6.   A paper by William Farone, former director of applied research at Philip Morris, backed the notion that the industry controls nicotine levels.

7.   A person is addicted when a decline in the nicotine levels in the blood results in reduced dopamine in the brain.

8.   A spokesman for Philip Morris, which has denied that it manipulated nicotine levels, had no comment on the document.

9.   ABC News was in the news recently apologizing to Philip Morris Co. for a story about how cigarette makers control the nicotine level in their products.

10.   But cigarette companies have repeatedly denied that they misled the federal government about their knowledge of the health hazards of smoking or that they manipulated nicotine levels.