Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Richard O'Connor, PhD¹, K. Michael Cummings, PhD MPH¹, David Hammond, PhD², Ann McNeil, PhD³, Gary Giovino, PhD¹, Bill King, MSc⁴, Jessica Palmer¹, and Tammy Vance¹. (1) Department of Health Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm and Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263, 716-845-8170, richard.oconnor@roswellpark.org, (2) Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada, (3) Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 2nd Floor Brook House, 2-16 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom, (4) The Cancer Council Victoria, 100 Drummond Street, Carlton, Victoria, 3053, Australia

Cigarette brand descriptors denoting ‘strengths' or ‘flavors' of cigarettes may not adequately reflect their physical characteristics or design features. To address this question, we examined popular brand families in five countries (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and China) using digital dilution/pressure drop equipment. Digital analytical balances were used to obtain weights, and digital calipers to assess length and diameter. Derived measures included filter and tobacco rod density. Tar and nicotine yield information were obtained from cigarette packs, manufacturers' websites, and government reports. To date we have examined 96 varieties of cigarettes including 17 US brand families and 13 Canadian brand families. Filter ventilation was highly correlated with ISO/FTC tar yields in both the US (r=-.89) and Canada (r=-.98). Filter ventilation was also highly correlated with machine-measured tar yields estimated using the more intense Canadian smoking machine protocol (r=-.74) where filter vents are completely blocked. All Canadian brands and half of the US brands described as “Full Flavor” would qualify as “low tar” by the ISO/FTC method with its arbitrary cutoff of <15 mg tar. Stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that filter ventilation, tobacco density, and pressure drop best classified US brands' machine-generated ISO/FTC tar level. The length of the filter overwrap and filter ventilation best classified Canadian brands' ISO/FTC tar level. These results will be compared with those from studies currently underway of cigarettes from the UK, Australia, and China. Cigarette design features appear to be better predictors of machine-measured tar yields than marketing brand descriptors, such as “Light” and/or “Mild.”

Learning Objectives:

• we were told that only the session abstract hat to have learning objectives

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No