Tobacco Products and Smoke: General Report

During the last three and a half years remarkable progress has been made in tobacco and tobacco smoke research. The fact that tobacco and smoke constituents of interest generally occur in extremely low concentrations necessarily led to the development of sophisticated analytical methods which were found to be of general interest in microanalysis. The composition of the gaseous phase of tobacco smoke is by now well known owing to studies using a combination of high resolution gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. A great many compounds were identified for the first time in tobacco or tobacco smoke by means of analytical procedures newly developed or adapted from other research fields. Terms concerning the distribution of the total smoke to the different smoke streams have been defined, and the possibilities of selective retention of smoke components have been examined. The distribution of water consisting of tobacco moisture and of combustion water among the different smoke streams and other transportation phenomena in the burning process of a cigarette have been studied. Particle size distribution, the determination of the air permeability of cigarette paper, and the mechanical properties of tobacco have been investigated by means of physical measuring procedures.