EX-SMOKE SALESMAN SLAMS NICOTINE 'MANIPULATION'

'Mild' Brand Wasn't, Man Alleges In Suit

When Joseph Battaglia started smoking Matinee Extra Milds in 1994, he
thought the low tar and nicotine levels stated on their packs would help
him quit, yet he was pleased they seemed to answer his nicotine cravings.

"They gave me a satisfaction. They surprised me," he testified yesterday.

But the former cigarette salesman said he was furious when he found out a
few years later the toxin levels he was inhaling were likely much higher.

"They were manipulating the nicotine levels," he testified, calling it "a
manipulation of my addiction."

In a trial closely watched by the tobacco industry and anti-smoking groups,
Battaglia, 59, is suing Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. for $6,000 in damages
in small claims court, alleging the company designed a cigarette with
minuscule holes on the side to give a false low reading in tests.

"It's the cigarette of the guy who wants to quit. That's why it's so
successful," the Toronto paralegal said.

Battaglia demonstrated for his lawyer, Doug Lennox, how he puffs and holds
a cigarette, covering with his mouth or fingers the tiny holes that would
have weakened the smoke's concentration if left exposed to the air.

Battaglia started working for an Imperial rival, Rothman's of Pall Mall, in
1957 at the age of 16 and began smoking a year later. He eventually rose to
be national sales manager for the Dunhill brand before leaving in 1969.

For years, when he heard about cigarette health concerns he called it
propaganda. "I defended the tobacco industry to my friends and family," the
father of three testified. "It was denied that (smoking) was addictive and
I believed it."

He has attempted to quit, trying hypnosis, therapy, nicotine gum and the
patch with no success, he testified.

Before learning of the high nicotine readings in the "mild" cigarettes he
smoked, "I blamed my own personal weakness."

Dr. Anthony Graham, a clinical cardiologist and head of ambulatory care at
St. Michael's Hospital, testified Battaglia has triple vessel coronary
artery disease and his prognosis, if he doesn't quit smoking and make other
lifestyle changes, is a 21 to 27 per cent chance of dying within five years.

Sometime between 1991 and 1999, Battaglia had a silent heart attack he
didn't notice, and he had an angioplasty in his left leg because of a
narrowing of blood flow.

Quitting smoking is the single most important thing a cardiac patient can
do to improve his chances of survival, Graham testified.

The trial continues.