But the report also did something else: it foreshadowed the industry’s transformation from selling a largely agricultural product into one that scientifically engineered cigarettes through chemistry, nicotine manipulation, and smoke analysis. McKinsey cited, for example, the introduction of “reconstituted tobacco,” a process that turns tobacco scraps into paper-like sheets, which are then chopped up and added to the cigarette. Along the way, nicotine is removed with other substances. But, significantly, nicotine is later added to achieve the desired nicotine content.
