WHERE THERE'S SMOKE . . .

Food and Drug Administration chief David Kessler charged that a major tobacco firm secretly developed a high-nicotine tobacco and has started using it in its Richland, Viceroy and Raleigh brand cigarettes. Kessler told a congressional panel that Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co. had told its researchers to lie to the FDA about the secret tobacco, known as Y-1, which Kessler says was grown in Brazil and distributed throughout the U.S. last year. Two shipping invoices aside, the House had to take Kessler's word for it, as he chose to keep all sources confidential. Tobacco company officials say Kessler's charges are overblown. Today's congressional hearing fits neatly into an FDA campaign to require that cigarettes be regulated as a drug. Notes TIME Washington correspondent Dick Thompson: "What's making (the tobacco interests) irritable is that it does seem possible that nicotine could be regulated."