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A
research team at
Virginia
Commonwealth
University
recently probed the
carcinogenic properties of the
“Advance” brand cigarette, which burns a tobacco
specially cured to cut levels of a nasty set of
compounds known as nitrosamines. Within five days,
the study showed, test smokers registered only half
as much of the cancer-causing chemical in their
urine as they had when they’d been puffing on
their old, low-tar brands.
Given
the health risks inherent with smoking, it would be
rash to imply that the Advance brand is somehow
“safer” than others. But it may be possible to
suggest that it is “less dangerous.”
“Our
data suggest that Advance reduces nitrosamine
exposure significantly,” says lead researcher
Thomas Eissenberg, head of VCU’s Clinical
Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory. “We don’t
know whether this reduced exposure to nitrosamines
will actually decrease cancer risk from smoking.
But, to the extent that nitrosamines are associated
with tobacco-related mortality, incorporating low-nitrosamine
tobacco in other products may be an important public
health goal.”
The
VCU study hints at a new realm of possibilities for
tobacco-related research –- and, if Virginians
play their cards right, for economic development
built around the revitalization of the tobacco
industry and the expansion of biomedical research.
Big
Tobacco has a big problem: Its products kill its
customers. Cigarette smoking is under assault around
the world, and consumption in the U.S. is
declining. The industry has two broad choices. It
can deny the scientific evidence and watch its
credibility go up in smoke, as it did for decades.
Or, it can work to reduce the health risks of its
products, as it has been doing quietly in recent
years.
The
biological and chemical sciences have advanced to
the point where it may be possible to pinpoint
exactly how the carcinogens found in cigarette smoke
interact with humans on a cellular and molecular
level to cause cancer and other illnesses. Once the
biochemical pathways are understood, in theory, it
might be possible to eliminate or neutralize the
most dangerous chemicals. The guardians of
politically correct thought undoubtedly would deride
such a mission as impossible and immoral – nothing
short of a totally risk-free cigarette would be
acceptable. But Virginia
should ponder the advantages of leading a “safer
cigarette” initiative. The Old Dominion would have
much to gain, even as it contributed to people
living longer, healthier lives.
Here’s
the moral case: Safer cigarettes would benefit an
estimated 1.2 billion
smokers around the world who, for whatever reason,
will not or cannot kick their habit. Smoking is not
only an American vice – the habit is abetted by
governments addicted to revenues from taxes and
tobacco-monopoly profits. People in other countries
will smoke regardless of what happens in the
U.S.
At the same time, the U.S.
leads the world in the innovation of tobacco
products designed to reduce health risks.
Admittedly, eliminating the hazards of smoking is a
daunting task.
But even partial success could save as many lives as,
say, all the international AIDS programs on the
planet.
Here’s
the pragmatic case: The Old Dominion got its start
as a tobacco colony, and the industry remains a
pillar of the Southside and Central
Virginia
economies.
Virginia
is home not only to Philip Morris’ giant
cigarette-manufacturing plant, but two
globe-spanning leaf-trading companies, tobacco
farms, warehouses, curing and de-stemming
facilities, a host of specialized vendors and
equipment suppliers, and tobacco-related research at
Virginia Tech and VCU. Furthermore, according to
Saturday’s Richmond
Times-Dispatch, Philip Morris USA may announce
the relocation of its corporate headquarters from New York to Richmond
in the very near future. Think of the growth
potential if this industry cluster pioneered the development of safer cigarettes for distribution
around the world.
No
one is likely to remove all
the toxic and chemical compounds from cigarettes --
more than 43 cancer-causing chemicals are found in
cigarette smoke, many of them resulting from
combustion of the tobacco leaf, not from substances
that can be removed by the genetic engineering of
tobacco or by any known manufacturing process. But
it may not be necessary to rid cigarettes of 100
percent of the bad stuff to take much of the risk
out of smoking. Healthy human immune systems may be
capable of metabolizing low levels of
toxic/carcinogenic substances or repairing the
damage done by them. But no one knows for sure: More
research is needed.
Virginia
happens to be an aspiring player in biotechnology
research. Nationally, the biotech industry is
clustered in a handful of regions –
Boston,
San
Francisco,
Philadelphia,
New
York,
San
Diego,
Seattle,
Raleigh-Durham and Washington-Baltimore – which
enjoy the competitive advantages of specialized
research institutes, skilled work forces and venture
capital.
Virginia
may not be among the elite, but its biotech assets
are hardly negligible. There is considerable life
science research underway at VCU, Virginia Tech, the
University
of Virginia
and the Eastern
Virginia
Medical
School.
A
“safe cigarette” initiative could create a
biotech niche that other U.S. regions may be hesitant or
ill-equipped to fill. The potential exists for
Virginia to establish itself as the center for
safe-cigarette R&D, a field of inquiry spanning
multiple disciplines: the genetic manipulation of
tobacco plants, the chemistry of combustion, the
human immune system’s response to toxins and
carcinogens, the role of genetics in resistance to
cancer, the investigation of other smoking-induced
illnesses such as heart disease and emphysema –
even nanotechnology and molecular-level filters. In
time, Virginia
research institutions could leverage expertise in
these fields into related research disciplines–
perhaps enough to vault into the top tier of biotech
states.
A
2001 research survey of 77 local and 36 state
economic development agencies reported that 83
percent had listed biotech as one of their top two
priorities for industrial development, according to
a recent Brookings
Institution report on biotech centers in the
U.S.
Some 41 states have undertaken programs or
activities to stimulate the development of
biotechnology. It’s a crowded field. If
Virginia
wants to break out of the pack, it needs to find
some way to stand out from the rest.
A
safe cigarette initiative might do it.
There’s
a lot of safe-cigarette research going on right now,
although tobacco companies prefer to call it
“reduced risk” research, and it’s scattered
around the country. No state or region, to my
knowledge, has staked out a leading position in this
field.
Virginia
is as likely a candidate to dominate this field as
anyone. Philip Morris USA hosts research operations
in Richmond.
VCU’s Massey
Cancer
Center,
also in Richmond,
conducts research on the link between smoking and
cancer. And in
Blacksburg,
Virginia
Tech studies the tobacco plant from the perspective
of agriculture and life sciences. Last but not
least, Star Scientific, Inc., a company founded on
the premise that it is technologically possible to
reduce the health risks associated with long-term
tobacco use, is headquartered in Chester.
Star’s
core technology, the StarCured tobacco-curing
process, interrupts the formation of nitrosamines in
tobacco leaf during the traditional curing process.
The company used the StarCured leaf in its Advance
cigarettes – the brand tested in the VCU study –
as well as a number of smokeless products. Although
the company lost $3 million last year on sales of
$150 million, it sold its cigarette business last
month for $80 million to North Atlantic Trading
Company. Star now says it will focus on the curing
and sale of low-nitrosamine tobacco leaf.
Philip
Morris has less to say about its research program.
On its website, the company states laconically that
it focuses research on the twin goals of providing
consumers with "smoking pleasure" and
developing technologies “with the potential to
reduce harm associated with our product.” Among
the company’s recent innovations is the Accord, a
battery-activated lighter/holder that curtails
second-hand smoke. The company reportedly invested
$200 million over five years in the product.
Brown
& Williamson, based in Louisville,
Ky., also focuses much of its research program on
reducing the health risks of smoking, and it’s
more forthcoming about its objectives. Despite
decades of research, the company maintains, there remain significant gaps in the scientific understanding of the link between
smoking and human health. These include:
Probing such questions can result in important medical
discoveries. R.J. Reynolds’ research into the
addictive properties of nicotine, for instance, led
to the spin-off of Targacept, Inc., which develops
products that interact with nicotinic receptors in
the human nervous system. The
Winston-Salem,
N.C.,
company sees potential applications to Alzheimer’s
disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, pain,
schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome and other
diseases. The company, which holds 70 patents,
raised $46 million in second-round venture funding
in December.
Tobacco-related
research can lead to other kinds of life-science
innovations. CropTech, a company spun out of
Virginia Tech agricultural R&D, developed a
proprietary method for transforming tobacco plants
into biological factories for enzymes and other
biopharmaceutical products. The firm’s MeGa-PharM
protein-manufacturing system has successfully
produced in tobacco plants a wide range of
commercially significant recombinant proteins,
including monoclonal antibodies.
Virginia
lost this promising company to
South
Carolina,
which offered lucrative incentives to relocate to
the Charleston
area. There are legitimate reasons not to engage in
bidding wars to retain business. However, Virginia
might have felt justified in responding more
aggressively with inducements of its own had the
Commonwealth articulated a strategy to build the
state’s tobacco cluster.
Virginia
Tech would play a crucial role in any safe-cigarette
initiative. The College of Agriculture & Life
Sciences is redefining its research priorities to
emphasize development of value-added agricultural
products like CropTech’s enzyme-producing tobacco
plants. Additionally, Virginia Tech has proposed a
Food, Nutrition and Health Institute, an
interdisciplinary program to promote health across
the entire food chain: farming, processing,
packaging and distribution, and sale to the
consumer. Such an institute could provide the
conceptual framework for attacking the health
dangers of cigarettes at every step from genetically
altering the chemical composition of tobacco plants
to keeping cigarettes out of the hands of minors.
The
Massey
Cancer
Center,
affiliated with the VCU Health System, is one of the
leading cancer research centers in the U.S. Massey
supports strong research programs in immune
mechanisms, cancer cell biology and other fields
that potentially would intersect with a
safe-cigarette crusade.
The
state of Virginia has minimal resources to apply
directly to a safe-cigarette initiative, but one of
the core missions of the newly constituted Center
for Innovative Technology is to step up the level of
federal funding for Virginia R&D. Potentially,
CIT could patrol the corridors of the National
Institutes of Health for programs consistent with
the goal of preventing or ameliorating the effects
of cigarette smoking.
Clearly,
Virginia has the institutional wherewithal to launch
a safer cigarette initiative should it choose to
make it a priority.
It
is a staple of modern economic development theory
that the ability of a region like Central/Southside
Virginia to prosper in a competitive global
marketplace depends upon its ability to out-innovate
the competition. Innovation does not occur randomly.
It tends to ferment in in geographically focused
industries where a rich,
mutually supporting ecology of consumers, vendors,
suppliers, researchers, institutes and associations
can disseminate cutting-edge thinking.
The
tobacco industry in Virginia
is potentially such a world-class cluster; the
imminent relocation of Philip Morris USA will cement
the region’s status. The state can reinforce this
cluster in a number of ways:
·
Create
a positive, unifying theme, such as the safer-cigarette
initiative, that will capture peoples’ imagination
and put
Virginia
on the map;
·
Collaborate
with Virginia
universities to attract federal R&D dollars for
tobacco- and cigarette-related research.
·
Focus
industrial-recruitment resources on attracting other
major tobacco players to
Central
Virginia.
If
Virginia can lay claim to being a world-class center
of tobacco R&D and product innovation, perhaps
R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson or Lorillard
could be persuaded to move their corporate
headquarters, or at very least significant research
operations, to Richmond. If the region could begin
generating innovations and intellectual property,
perhaps venture capitalists with biosciences
expertise could be induced to set up shop in Virginia.
Virginians
have long been schizophrenic about the tobacco
industry. Most appreciate the contribution the
tobacco industry makes to
the state's economy, but polite opinion increasingly
detests cigarettes and their impact on public
health. Even in the Old Dominion -- the state with
the lowest cigarette taxes in the country -- friends
of the industry feel queasy about supporting a
product that dispenses disease and death.
But
from
a global perspective, U.S.
cigarette manufacturers are the good guys. Given the
nature of the U.S. market and legal environment,
they are far more attuned to product safety and
health than most of their foreign competitors. If
the tobacco industry simply articulated a positive
mission -- developing a safer cigarette -- most
Virginians could support the industry with a clean
conscience. And most of us would be proud
for tobacco companies to join us as corporate citizens.
--
March
3, 2003
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