title: Variation in tobacco and mainstream smoke toxicant yields from selected commercial cigarette products.
abstract: There is a drive toward the mandated lowering and reporting of selected toxicants in tobacco smoke. Several studies have quantified the mainstream cigarette emissions of toxicants, providing benchmark levels. Few, however, have examined how measured toxicant levels within a single product vary over time due to natural variation in the tobacco, manufacturing and measurement. In a single centre analysis, key toxicants were measured in the tobacco blend and smoke of 3R4F reference cigarette and three commercial products, each sampled monthly for 10 months. For most analytes, monthly variation was low (coefficient of variation <15%); but higher (⩾ 20%) for some compounds present at low (ppb) levels. Reporting toxicant emissions as a ratio to nicotine increased the monthly variation of the 9 analytes proposed for mandated lowering, by 1-2 percentage points. Variation in toxicant levels was generally 1.5-1.7-fold higher in commercial cigarettes compared with 3R4F over the 10-month period, but increased up to 3.5-fold for analytes measured at ppb level. The potential error (2CV) associated with single-point-in-time sampling averaged ∼ 20%. Together, these data demonstrate that measurement of emissions from commercial cigarettes is associated with considerable variation for low-level toxicants. This variation would increase if the analyses were conducted in more than one laboratory.
authors.affiliation: British American Tobacco, Group Research and Development, Southampton, UK. Electronic address: alison_eldridge@bat.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eldridge
authors.affiliation: British American Tobacco, Group Research and Development, Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Betson
authors.affiliation: Souza Cruz S.A/British American Tobacco, PC-Americas, Cachoeirinha, Brazil.
authors.forename: M Vinicius
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Gama
authors.affiliation: British American Tobacco, Group Research and Development, Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McAdam
mesh_terms: D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012906:Smoke / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances; D012906:Smoke; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution
keywords: Cigarette filler blend constituents; Mainstream cigarette smoke; Measurement variability; Smoke toxicant emissions