Brand Cigarillos: Low Price but High Particulate Matter Levels-Is Their Favorable Taxation in the European Union Justified?

BACKGROUND: Second hand smoke (ETS)-associated particulate matter (PM) contributes considerably to indoor air contamination and constitutes a health risk for passive smokers. Easy to measure, PM is a useful parameter to estimate the dosage of ETS that passive smokers are exposed to. Apart from its suitability as a surrogate parameter for ETS-exposure, PM itself affects human morbidity and mortality in a dose-dependent manner. We think that ETS-associated PM should be considered an independent hazard factor, separately from the many other known harmful compounds of ETS. We believe that brand-specific and tobacco-product-specific differences in the release of PM matter and that these differences are of public interest. METHODS: To generate ETS of cigarettes and cigarillos as standardized and reproducible as possible, an automatic second hand smoke emitter (AETSE) was developed and placed in a glass chamber. L&M cigarettes ("without additives", "red label", "blue label"), L&M filtered cigarillos ("red") and 3R4F standard research cigarettes (as reference) were smoked automatically according to a self-developed, standardized protocol until the tobacco product was smoked down to 8 mm distance from the tipping paper of the filter. RESULTS: Mean concentration (Cmean) and area under the curve (AUC) in a plot of PM2.5 against time were measured, and compared. CmeanPM2.5 were found to be 518 µg/m(3) for 3R4F cigarettes, 576 µg/m(3) for L&M "without additives" ("red"), 448 µg/m(3) for L&M "blue label", 547 µg/m(3) for L&M "red label", and 755 µg/m(3) for L&M filtered cigarillos ("red"). AUCPM2.5-values were 208,214 µg/m(3)·s for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 204,629 µg/m(3)·s for L&M "without additives" ("red"), 152,718 µg/m(3)·s for L&M "blue label", 238,098 µg/m(3)·s for L&M "red label" and 796,909 µg/m(3)·s for L&M filtered cigarillos ("red"). CONCLUSION: Considering the large and significant differences in particulate matter emissions between cigarettes and cigarillos, we think that a favorable taxation of cigarillos is not justifiable.

Brand cigarillos--a cheap and less harmful alternative to cigarettes? Particulate matter emissions suggest otherwise.

BACKGROUND: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)-associated particulate matter (PM) constitutes a considerable health risk for passive smokers. It ought to be assessed separately from the other known toxic compounds of tobacco smoke. Brand-specific differences between cigarettes and particularly between cigarettes and favorably taxed cigarillos, are of public interest and therefore worth being investigated. METHODS: An automatic environmental tobacco smoke emitter (AETSE) was developed to generate cigarette and cigarillo smoke in a reliable and reproducible way. John Player Special (JPS) Red cigarettes, JPS filter cigarillos and 3R4F standard research cigarettes were smoked automatically in a 2.88 m3 glass chamber according to a standardized protocol until 5 cm from the top were burned down. RESULTS: Mean concentrations (Cmean) and area of the curve (AUC) of PM2.5 were measured and compared. Cmean PM2.5 were found to be 804 µg/m3 for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 1633 µg/m3 for JPS cigarettes, and 1059 µg/m3 for JPS filter cigarillos. AUC PM2.5-values are 433,873 µg/m3×s for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 534,267 µg/m3×s for JPS Red cigarettes and 782,850 µg/m3×s for JPS filter cigarillos. CONCLUSION: Potential brand-specific differences of ETS-associated PM emissions among brands of cigarettes, and between cigarettes and cigarillos of the same brand and size should be investigated and published. Information about relative PM-emissions should be printed on the package.