EVALUATION OF THE GENOTOXIC AND CYTOTOXIC POTENTIAL OF MAINSTREAM WHOLE SMOKE AND SMOKE CONDENSATE FROM A CIGARETTE CONTAINING A NOVEL CARBON FILTER

A novel carbon filter has been developed which primarily reduces the a mount of certain vapor phase constituents of tobacco smoke with greate r efficiency than the charcoal filters of cigarettes currently in the market. In vitro indicators of genotoxic and cytotoxic potential were used to compare the cigarette smoke condensate (particulate phase) or whole cigarette smoke (vapor phase and particulate phase) from cigaret tes containing the novel carbon filter with smoke condensate or whole smoke from commercial or prototype cigarettes not containing the novel carbon filter. Ames bacterial mutagenicity, sister chromatid exchange (SCE) in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, and neutral red cytotoxic ity assays in CHO cells were utilized to assess the genotoxic and cyto toxic potential of the cigarette smoke condensates. SCE and neutral re d cytotoxicity assays were utilized to assess the genotoxic and cytoto xic potential of the whole smoke. As expected, the novel carbon filter did not significantly affect the genotoxic or cytotoxic activity of t he smoke condensate, although we did observe that the use of low-nitro gen tobacco reduced the mutagenicity of the condensate in Salmonella t yphimurium strain TA98, However, the whole smoke from cigarettes conta ining the novel carbon filter demonstrated significant reductions in g enotoxic and cytotoxic potential compared to cigarettes without the no vel carbon filter. The toxicity of the smoke was correlated (r = 0.766 2 for cytotoxicity and r = 0.7562 for SCE induction) to the aggregate mass of several vapor phase components (acetone, acetaldehyde, acrolei n, acrylonitrile, 1,3-butadiene, ammonia, NOx, HCN, benzene, isoprene, and formaldehyde) in the smoke of the cigarettes utilized in this stu dy, In conclusion, this novel carbon filter, which significantly reduc ed the amount of carbonyls and other volatiles in mainstream cigarette smoke, resulted in significant reductions in the genotoxic and cytoto xic activity of the smoke as measured by these assays. (C) 1997 Societ y of Toxicology.