Mainstream smoke chemistry analysis of samples from the 2009 US cigarette market

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Abstract

A survey of selected mainstream smoke constituents from commercially marketed US cigarettes was conducted in 2009. The US cigarette market was segmented into thirteen (13) strata based on Cambridge Filter Method (CFM) “tar” category and cigarette design parameters. Menthol and non-menthol cigarettes were included. Sixty-one (61) cigarette brand styles were chosen to represent the market. Another thirty-four (34) brand styles of interest were included in the survey along with a Kentucky 3R4F reference cigarette. Twenty mainstream smoke constituents were evaluated using the Health Canada smoking regimen. By weighting the results of the 61 brand styles using the number of brand styles represented by each stratum, the mainstream smoke constituent means and medians of the US cigarette market were estimated.

For nicotine, catechol, hydroquinone, benzo(a)pyrene and formaldehyde the mean yields increased with increasing “tar” yields. Constituent yields for the ultra-low “tar” and low “tar” cigarettes were not significantly different for most other analytes as ventilation blocking defeated any filter air dilution design features. In contrast, normalization per mg nicotine provided an inverse ranking of cigarette yields per CFM “tar” categories. Menthol cigarette mean constituent yields were observed to be within the range of the non-menthol cigarettes of similar “tar” categories.

Highlights

► Stratified market allows view of entire market with small sampling. ► Smoking with the Health Canada smoking regimen maintains “tar” category rankings. ► Normalization by nicotine reverses rank ordering. ► Mostly, non-menthol and menthol cigarette yields were not significantly different.

Introduction

Over the years, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company has conducted surveys of the US cigarette marketplace in order to provide a snapshot of the range of market yields for selected mainstream smoke constituents and mutagenicity. In the past, these surveys were conducted using the Cambridge Filter Method (CFM) for smoking the cigarettes evaluated (Steele et al., 1995, Swauger et al., 1997, Swauger et al., 2002, deBethizy, 1998, Chepiga et al., 2000). With the onset of interest in smoking regimens more intensive than the CFM, it was decided to survey the US marketplace using the Health Canada smoking regimen of a 55 cc puff taken every 30 s for a 2 s duration with 100% of the ventilation holes blocked. Relatively little mainstream smoke chemistry data of US cigarettes has been published using this smoking regimen (Counts et al., 2005, Hammond and O’Conner, 2008). The purpose of this survey is to extend the published data available on US market products tested using the Health Canada smoking regimen, to provide a reliable means of estimating market means and medians of mainstream smoke constituents for the entire US cigarette market using a stratified statistical approach and to include the current industry reference cigarette, Kentucky 3R4F (3R4F), so that it could serve as a link to other studies.

Since this study was conducted the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published draft guidance for the tobacco industry on reporting harmful and potentially harmful constituents in tobacco products (FDA, 2012). Some of these smoke constituents are the same as in this study; however this study at the time utilized the list of smoke constituents recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for reporting and monitoring as detailed in WHO Technical Report 951 (WHO, 2008).

Section snippets

Market segmentation and sample selection

Over 3000 brand styles made up the US cigarette market in 2008 based on shipment to retailer data. Selection of brand styles for the survey was restricted to those with at least a 0.05% market share by volume to provide assurance that the products selected could be easily located and purchased. This resulted in a subset population of 207 market products from which the selected styles were chosen. These brand styles were segmented into 13 strata based on CFM “tar” category (“Full Flavor”,

Results

Results for all brand styles tested are presented in the appendix. Table 3 presents summary statistics for the US cigarette market. Means, medians, and associated 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using data from the 61 brand styles selected at random with weights for the number of brand styles per stratum of US market indicated in Table 1, while the ranges presented cover all 95 market products tested. Mean results for reference cigarette 3R4F are also presented in Table 3 for

Discussion

Constituent means and medians reported in Table 3 are generally similar but the ranges indicate great variation among the market products tested for most constituents. The mean constituent yields for 3R4F, as shown in Table 3, though somewhat lower than the market mean for many constituents, fall within the product ranges of the market. Significance testing of the mean yields for the non-menthol and menthol subpopulations presented in Table 4 showed few statistically significant differences.

Conclusion

This study, by means of stratifying the US cigarette market, provides summary statistics of the US cigarette market for selected analytes using the Health Canada smoking regimen. A temporal picture of the US market has been taken by means of stratifying the market based on “tar” categories and weighing the results based on the number of brand styles per strata. Another way of looking at the US market would be to stratify the market based on market share. Additional analyses found few

Conflict of interest statement

The authors would like to state that they have no competing interest and this research was funded by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

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