Divergence between strength indicators in packaging and cigarette engineering: a case study of Marlboro varieties in Australia and the USA.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate how the tobacco industry is adapting to regulatory action in accordance with provisions of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that targets misleading packaging and labelling. To relate the packaging and labelling of new cigarette varieties to their construction and performance. METHODS: The principal design features and tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide yields of the Marlboro 'brand family' in Australia were measured and compared with those of the US equivalents. RESULTS: Marlboro Red and Blue/Medium, could not be differentiated in preliminary tests in Australia, but were different in the USA. However, yield testing showed Marlboro Blue/Medium did not have lower tar and nicotine yields in either country, indeed being higher in Australia. CONCLUSIONS: Colour can be used to market cigarettes as 'milder', independently of ISO yields and 'Light'/'Mild' descriptors. Banning of 'Light' and 'Mild' brand descriptors may be inadequate to end belief in less harmful cigarettes so long as the tobacco industry remains free to engineer 'mildness' and to use colours, other descriptors and design features to characterise varieties it wants to market as 'milder'.

Estimating smokers' mouth-level exposure to select mainstream smoke constituents from discarded cigarette filter butts.

INTRODUCTION: Standardized machine smoking measurements are poor predictors of exposure. We have refined a method using the solanesol deposited in discarded cigarette butts as a marker for estimating deliveries of mainstream smoke constituents. Developing a fast and accurate method for measuring solanesol in cigarette filters to assess tobacco smoke intake could provide a way to assess how people smoke under natural conditions. We have developed and validated a new, lower-cost, high-throughput method to measure the solanesol content in discarded cigarette filter butts and correlated these measurements with mainstream smoke deliveries of nicotine and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). METHODS: Cigarettes were machine smoked under a variety of conditions to cover a wide range of nicotine deliveries and solanesol levels in the spent cigarette filter. Following machine smoking, a 1-cm portion of filter material, measured from the mouth end, was removed from the cigarette butts for analysis. Although an isotopically labeled solanesol analog is currently not commercially available, we achieved excellent quantitative results using a structurally similar compound, geranylgeraniol, as an internal standard (IS). After spiking with IS and solvent extracted, solanesol extracts were then analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled with a single-quadrupole mass analyzer. Analysis was carried out using manual preparation as well as a high-throughput 48-well format using automated liquid handlers. RESULTS: Recoveries of solanesol from cigarette butts exceeded 95% with excellent precision and exhibited excellent linearity for both preparation methods. In addition, we show that the mouth-level exposure for both nicotine and TSNAs may be estimated by their relation to the solanesol retained in the cigarette filter. DISCUSSION: We believe that this method provides excellent versatility and throughput for the estimation of mouth-level exposure to a wide range of toxins in cigarette smoke under naturalistic conditions. In addition, this method allows a far more accurate measure of exposure both from a single cigarette as well as from daily smoking.

Development of a method to estimate mouth-level benzo[a]pyrene intake by filter analysis.

BACKGROUND: Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is one of the most potent carcinogens generated in cigarette smoke. During smoking, cigarette filters trap a significant portion of mainstream smoke benzo[a]pyrene. This trapped portion is proportional to what exits the end of the filter and is drawn into the mouth of smokers. METHODS: We developed a new method to estimate mouth-level BaP intake using filter analysis. In this analysis, cigarettes are smoked by a smoking machine using a variety of conditions to yield a range of mainstream smoke deliveries, which approximate a range of human puffing characteristics. Mainstream smoke BaP collected on Cambridge filter pads and the corresponding 1-cm mouth-end cigarette filter butts is extracted, purified by solid-phase extraction, and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a fluorescence detector. On the basis of the amount of BaP retained in cigarette butts and the amount collected on pads, we can relate them using a linear regression model. RESULTS: Using this model and subsequently analyzing cigarette filters collected from smokers, we are able to estimate their mouth-level intakes, which smokers received when they consumed cigarettes. We made a series of measurements using research cigarettes and select commercial cigarettes having a wide range of machine smoke "tar" and nicotine deliveries. CONCLUSIONS: In all cases, results indicate a linear relation of BaP between cigarette filter butts and Cambridge filter pads, with R(2) ranging from 0.93 to 0.98. IMPACT: This technique provides a noninvasive means to examine intake on a per cigarette basis to examine both exposure and behavioral aspects of smoking.