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How did UK cigarette makers get their brands to 10 mg ëTarí or less?

Richard J. O'Connor, Ann McNeill, K. Michael Cummings, Lynn T. Kozlowski, & Gary A. Giovino

Methodology:

Cigarettes were not conditioned prior to testing, but room conditions were monitored. The room registered 23.8C and 48.3% relative humidity on the day the 1999 cigarettes were tested. and 23.9C and 61.2% relative humidity when the 2005 cigarettes were analyzed.

Cigarette filter ventilation was assessed using a KC-3 digital ventilation and pressure drop measurement apparatus (Borgwaldt-KC, Richmond, VA, USA). The apparatus was calibrated according to the manufacturerís instructions prior to use.

Twenty cigarettes from freshly opened packs were tested for filter ventilation. For some brands, we used two 10-packs to achieve 20 cigarettes. For selected brands, both 10-packs and 20-packs were on hand and were both tested. Each cigarette was pulled from the pack, then placed into the opening. The ìTESTî button was pressed and a reading obtained. For readings inconsistent with the rest of the sticks from a particular pack, the reading was made a second time.

An analytical balance (AB-104S, Mettler-Toledo Inc., Columbus, OH, USA) assessed weights on five filters of each brand. Five filters were placed in a polystyrene weighboat, which had been tared. The total weight was then recorded and divided by 5 to achieve an average per-filter weight. For tobacco rod weight, all of the brown matter from 5 cigarettes was emptied into a single polystyrene weighboat. This total weight was then divided by 5 to achieve an average per-rod weight.

Because the 1999 samples were quite dried out, tobacco weights and pressure drop readings on these cigarettes may be unreliable. However, these data are included in the dataset, which can be requested above.

Major finding:

The predominant change seen in UK brands after the institution of the EUís 10-1-10 yield maximums was the addition of ventilation. To illustrate, look at the images below.

This represents one brand studied, Berkeley Superkings, in 1999 (left) and 2005 (right).

This brand dropped from 16mg CO to 10mg CO. In 1999, no vent holes are visible, and the overall percentage ventilation was 3.9%. In 2005, vent holes are clearly visible and the overall percentage ventilation was 33.5%. We did not find differences in other physical characteristics for this brand.

FUNDING: This work was performed under a Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center grant to Roswell Park Cancer Institute from the US National Institutes of Health (1 P50 CA111236).