In 1936, the first filtered cigarette was introduced and positioned in the market place as “a mild, clean smoke with health benefits resulting from filtration”. Non-filtered cigarettes with high tar and nicotine deliveries were the norm at that time. From 1942 to 1961 the volume of filtered cigarettes sold grew and overcame non-filtered cigarettes, largely due to advertising and publicity claims that filtered cigarette smoke was “better for your health” and claims that implied “health and taste benefits due to filtration”. The development of apparent low-delivery cigarettes by the tobacco industry was intensified in response to the United States surgeon general’s 1964 report on smoking and health1 and the public perception that filtered cigarettes would present less exposure to the smoker of the toxic pyrolysis products of a cigarette. During the past four decades the cigarette manufacturers have nurtured this perception by producing a myriad of low-delivery products through sophisticated cigarette design, tobacco blend manipulation, use of additives, and the help of a co-opted Federal Trade Commission (FTC) testing method.

The cigarette manufacturers have convinced the public that a cigarette is nothing but tobacco leaf grown in the ground and wrapped in paper. However, this is far from what actually happens. In fact, at every step from tobacco growing and leaf blending to cigarette design and manufacture, a central objective of the cigarette manufacturers is to carefully control the nicotine dose the smoker will get.2 3

In this issue of Tobacco Control, Kozlowski et al 4 have investigated the effects of filter ventilation and nicotine content of tobacco on machine-smoked yields of cigarettes from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. They found that filter ventilation was “by far the largest factor influencing machine-smoked yields of tar, nicotine, and CO (carbon monoxide)”.

Cigarette ventilation is …