CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF A NEW CIGARETTE THAT PRIMARILY HEATS TOBACCO - PART 1 - CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION OF MAINSTREAM SMOKE

A new-technology cigarette has been developed. While the new cigarette burns some tobacco, it does not use tobacco as the fuel to sustain co mbustion and provide heat to the cigarette. Rather, the new cigarette primarily heats tobacco thereby reducing products of smoke formation m echanisms;such as tobacco combustion, tobacco pyrolysis and pyrosynthe sis. The mainstream smoke composition from a cigarette based on the ne w design (TOB-HT) has been characterized in comparative chemical testi ng with two reference cigarettes using the FTC puffing regimen. Therma l properties, UV absorption characteristics, elemental composition and materials balance studies all suggest a simplified smoke aerosol. Twe nty-five smoke constituents (''target compounds'') identified by the s cientific community as compounds that may contribute to the:diseases s tatistically associated with smoking have also been measured. Mainstre am smoke concentrations of most target compounds are significantly low er with the TOB-HT cigarette when compared with reference cigarettes i n the ultra-light ''tar'' and light ''tar'' categories. Taken together , chemical analysis results suggest simplified TOB-HT smoke chemistry with marked reductions in specific chemicals reported to be biological ly active. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.