"Trade secrecy about the ingredients in cigarettes makes it impossible to know how many of the additives that appear on a 1994 list are actually in tobacco products today. Still, there's plenty of reason to be alarmed, said study lead author Dr. Michael Rabinoff, an assistant research psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "

""They're making people less aware of tobacco [smoke] and making the cigarette more addictive," he said. "There is so much going on with these additives that it's an uncontrolled experiment on billions of people around the planet.""

"Contrary to what smokers might assume, cigarettes aren't simply tobacco rolled up in pieces of paper. "They're highly engineered by the industry to smoke in certain ways and taste in certain ways," said James Pankow, a professor at Oregon Health & Science University who studies cigarette smoke and tobacco additives."

"Some additives may seem harmless, such as sugar. But even that can become harmful when combusted to form other compounds, he said. "

"The study was released online this week and will appear in the September issue of the "

". It is being released as Congress considers whether to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products. On Wednesday, a Senate committee approved a bill granting such oversight."

"In the study, Rabinoff and his colleagues examined a 1994 list of cigarette additives that they said the tobacco industry acknowledged using. It's not clear how many of the additives are still being used, or how common they are. According to the researchers, the tobacco companies are required to provide a confidential list of additives to the federal government each year."

"The study authors found that more than 100 of the additives "camouflage environmental [second-hand] tobacco smoke emitted from cigarettes, enhance or maintain nicotine delivery, could increase the addictiveness of cigarettes, and mask symptoms and illnesses associated with smoking behaviors.""

"The potentially harmful additives include chocolate and cocoa, which have chemicals that can make it easier for cigarette smoke to penetrate the lungs. Other additives appear to have an anesthetizing effect that makes it easier for smokers to avoid coughing, the researchers said. "

""We don't know exactly the intent of all these agents," Rabinoff said, although internal tobacco industry documents reveal some information. He added that it's a challenge to figure out what tobacco companies are up to and "reverse-engineer
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