A bill to give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate tobacco -- already a top priority in the new Democratic Congress -- could get an added boost from a new Harvard School of Public Health study showing that tobacco companies have steadily raised the amount of addictive nicotine in cigarettes.

The New York Times reported Jan. 19 that backers of increased federal regulation say that the Harvard report shows why such oversight is needed. "Given the harm that tobacco causes, it shouldn't be a game of cat-and-mouse to figure out what the industry is doing to cigarettes," said Josh Sharfstein, commissioner of health in Baltimore, Md.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of the FDA bill, said the study is "dramatic new proof that Big Tobacco is addicted to addicting millions of young smokers."

Ironically, Philip Morris has criticized the Harvard study -- saying changes in nicotine level are random -- but supports FDA regulation.

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler said that tobacco firms have a long history of manipulating nicotine levels in cigarettes. "Tobacco makers still have not answered some fundamental questions about why this is happening," said Kessler, currently dean of the school of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.