I believe in "Seinfeldism" — the school of thought that plainly states that if one looks hard enough, one can find any and every valuable life lesson within a given episode of "Seinfeld."

Such is the case with the 1993 episode when Elaine and Jerry get hooked on a brand of frozen yogurt that has become wildly popular because it is delicious and has been advertised as non-fat. However, Jerry and Elaine soon begin to realize they are rapidly putting on weight, and the frozen yogurt is subsequently tested in a lab for its fat content. The results come back "positive" and the unveiling of this fact shuts down the yogurt shop and also helps Rudolph Giuliani win the New York mayoral race after he pledges an initiative to check all fat content in the city's frozen yogurt.

Now if you've never watched this episode, then unfortunately you are missing a very important part of world history by having not seen every episode of "Seinfeld." But even so, you can see that it has elicited a very simple yet very important reality of our consumerist society, as agreed upon by most retailers and consumers alike: People want and deserve to know what's in the products they buy.

Thus, you can imagine the outcry when the Harvard School of Public Health published a report declaring that cigarette companies have increased the nicotine levels in their cigarettes by 11 percent over the past eight years, without, of course, notifying the public about the change. The report stirred much controversy and prompted many to call for stronger FDA regulations over the tobacco industry and its products.

In a New York Times article examining nicotine levels, Gladys Kessler of the Washington-based Federal District Court was quoted as saying tobacco companies had "lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public." And Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Baltimore's commissioner of health said in the same article, "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."

In short: "How dare they?"

Intuitively, this argument seems reasonable and just. After all, tobacco companies such as Phillip Morris (now Altria Group) pay hefty lawsuit sums all the time, state and local governments across the country continue to ban smoking in public places and as The New York Times reports, the tobacco industry is losing its consumer base by nearly 1 to 2 percent every year. So who would put it past those bastard tobacco executives to sneak behind our backs and increase nicotine levels in cigarettes to retain revenue levels by increasing the consumption desire among a rapidly declining consumer base?

Well, I would, for one.

You see, it doesn't actually make any economic sense for the tobacco companies to increase nicotine levels in cigarettes because the problem does not lie in the amount of nicotine crammed into every cigarette; it lies in the cigarettes themselves.

As pointed out by Michael Sigel, professor of social behavior at Boston University, in a New York Times article, an increase in nicotine levels does not necessarily imply an increase in harm to smokers or an increase in numbers of cigarettes smoked. Furthermore, it has been proven that smokers crave the nicotine in cigarettes above everything else, and if there is a higher nicotine yield per cigarette, then the smoker is likely to smoke fewer cigarettes in order to maintain their normal nicotine-intake levels. Likewise, a decrease in cigarettes smoked because of increased nicotine yields means that smokers would actually take in less of the tar and more than 4,000 other toxins that are inherent in every cigarette.

So while it may seem the most heinous of crimes to increase nicotine yields in cigarettes, especially without notifying the public, this outcry is misdirected.

Instead, the objection must be directed at youth smoking to eliminate the problem before it begins. And just last week, Gov. Jim Doyle decided to address the problem in the most comprehensive and practical manner to date.

By proposing a $1.25 increase excise tax on every pack of cigarettes (with its revenue to be dedicated to paying for tobacco-related illnesses), by locking away $600 million to be used for anti-smoking efforts and by asking legislators to support a statewide smoking ban for all public bars, restaurants and work places — the governor has accurately addressed the heart of the problem and has therefore proposed to save lives.

After all, this isn't frozen yogurt we're talking about. We're talking about one of the most prominent causes of death in the world. And we are missing the point by declaring what is or is not an acceptable level of nicotine in our cigarettes. On the contrary, we couldn't be more correct in declaring the acceptable number of cigarettes that are available to continue decimating our Medicaid funds and killing our citizens — and that number is zero.

Andy Granias ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and international studies.