Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Tobacco Control 2007;16:e5; doi:10.1136/tc.2006.019695
Copyright © 2007 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

RESEARCH PAPER

Trends in nicotine yield in smoke and its relationship with design characteristics among popular US cigarette brands, 1997–2005

Gregory N Connolly, Hillel R Alpert, Geoffrey Ferris Wayne and Howard Koh

Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
G N Connolly
Harvard School of Public Health, Division of Public Health Practice, Landmark Building, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; gconnoll{at}hsph.harvard.edu

Objectives: To determine whether nicotine yields in the smoke of cigarettes would show an overall increase over time or an increasing trend limited to any particular market category (eg, full flavour vs light, medium (mild) or ultralight; mentholated vs non-mentholated), manufacturer, or brand family or brand style, and whether nicotine yields in smoke would be associated with measurable trends in cigarette design.

Methods: Machine-based measures of nicotine yield in smoke and measures of cigarette design features related to nicotine delivery (ventilation, nicotine content in the tobacco rod and number of puffs), as well as market category descriptors, were obtained from annual reports filed with the Massachusetts Department of Public by tobacco manufacturers for 1997–2005. Trends in nicotine yield and its relationship with design features and market parameters were analysed with multilevel mixed-effects regression modelling procedures.

Results: A statistically significant trend was confirmed in increased nicotine yield, of 0.019 (1.1%) mg/cig/year over the period 1997–2005 and 0.029 (1.6%) mg/cig/year over the period 1998–2005. The increasing trend was observed in all major market categories (mentholated vs non-mentholated, and full flavour vs light, medium (mild) or ultralight). Nicotine yield in smoke was positively associated with nicotine concentration in the tobacco and number of puffs per cigarette, both of which showed increasing trends during the study period.

Conclusions: This study confirms increased machine-measured levels of nicotine, the addictive agent in cigarettes, in smoke, to be a result of increased nicotine in the tobacco rod and other design modifications.

Abbreviations: FTC, Federal Trade Commission; ISO, International Standard Organization; MA, Massachusetts; MDPH, Massachusetts Department of Public Health


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Tobacco Control Online: http://tc.bmj.com
Tob. Control 2007 16: 343. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Hudmon, K. S., Corelli, R. L. (2009). ASHP Therapeutic Position Statement on the Cessation of Tobacco Use. Am J Health Syst Pharm 66: 291-307 [Full Text]  

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.