Print this page
ISSUES
SMOKE CONSTITUENTS AND ISO STANDARD
It is our objective to seek to reduce the health impact of smoking for those smokers that continue to smoke. Based on many years of epidemiological study it seems that duration of use and estimates of dose (exposure) are important factors in determining the magnitude of health risks.
The question of whether lower tar yielding products are likely to result in a reduction in actual risk is critically dependant on being able to assess the relative differences in exposure to smoke between smokers of lower tar and smokers of higher tar yield products. To this end we have been researching the development of a technique to determine how smokers use their products thus enabling us to estimate deliveries under human smoking conditions.
The technique is based on the analysis of tar and nicotine deposited in cigarette filters after smoking. Whilst the principle is not new, we believe that refinements of the method allow estimates of product yields to be made across the wide range of product designs currently in use. the filter study method is relatively simple to use, is non-invasive and correlates well with clinical type studies used to determine whole body exposure to smoke constituents (e.g. nicotine and tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs)). We believe that the method could be used to estimate how populations of smokers use products across a wide range of ISO tar deliveries.
A number of research studies indicate that the majority of smokers choose their preferred product on the basis of the perceived sensory properties (taste and strength) of the product. a smoker's perceived strength of the product is related to both ISO tar and nicotine yields and the amounts of tar and nicotine obtained by the. In the absence of any other product descriptors it is likely that consumers now tend to use the ISO tar yields as a navigation tool to choosing their preferred "strength" product.
Until the relationship between ISO yield and consumer use of the product is demonstrated to a level of scientific confidence, we would not advocate any change in the current EU ceilings for tar, nicotine or carbon monoxide.