Philip Morris scientists also tracked some 60,000 school children, beginning with Virginia third-graders, to study connections between childhood hyperactivity and later teenage smoking, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., told the House in a midday speech.

Waxman read selections from a cache of what he identified as hundreds of internal documents from Philip Morris and submitted the documents, acquired during the course of Waxman’s ongoing investigation into the tobacco industry, for publication in the Congressional Record. The documents, apparently stolen from the company, detail more than a decade of research involving animal and human subjects that examined the pharmacology of nicotine, Waxman said.

These documents make a compelling case for regulation of tobacco to protect children, Waxman said. Noting that smoking rates among teens continue to rise despite efforts at tobacco education and control, Waxman said This is a health crisis of huge dimensions.

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Philip Morris, in a statement, said that the company could not comment on the documents because it had not seen them, but denied that the allegations were new.

Philip Morris has always said that it studied why people smoke. That should surprise no one since manufacturers of consumer products want toand need tounderstand why consumers use their products. In fact, we would be criticized as irresponsible if we had not conducted these studies of our products, the statement said.

In one study of the hyperkinetic child as a prospective smoker, Philip Morris researchers tracked some 60,000 grade schoolers, beginning with a group of third graders, in the Chesterfield County school system in Richmond, Va., to explore possible links between hyperactivity and later cigarette smoking. Noting that such children are often successfully treated with amphetamines, the researchers wrote in June 1974 that We wonder whether such children may not eventually become cigarette smokers in their teenage years as they discover the advantage of self-stimulation via nicotine.