title: Brand cigarillos--a cheap and less harmful alternative to cigarettes? Particulate matter emissions suggest otherwise.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Haus 9b, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. gerber@med.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Haus 9b, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. occup-med@uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bigelow
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Haus 9b, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Michaela.Schulze@stud.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schulze
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Haus 9b, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. groneberg@med.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Groneberg
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D019540:Area Under Curve; D006801:Humans; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000032:analysis*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution