Volumen 7 (1974): Heft 4 (April 1974)

The author investigated the effect upon the length of cigarette butts left by the smokers, brought about by the increase in tobacco tax of the first of September, 1972, in the Federal Republic of Germany. From the year 1959 to the month of August of 1972, the lengths of the butts of filter cigarettes have been found to continuously increase from 22.1 mm to 33.8 mm. This trend has been interrupted by price augmentations by about 20 % resulting from the said tax increase. On the average, since September 1972, the length of the butts of filter cigarettes has decreased by 0.6 mm and the length of the butts of plain cigarettes slightly by 0.2 mm

Numerous investigations and data on the development of smoke condensate and nicotine in German cigarettes, the changes in the market shares, the length of cigarettes smoked in laboratories and by the average consumer, and the per capita consumption of cigarettes in the Federal Republic of Germany were utilised in calculating the average delivery of smoke condensate and nicotine and for estimating the per capita consumption of moist and dry cigarette smoke condensate and the nicotine contained in it. In the period from 1961 to 1972 (for dry condensate figures are available only for 1966 to 1972) all these figures display a downward trend. Expressed in terms of the total population the reduction in moist condensate is about 28 %, nicotine about 27 % and dry condensate (for the shorter period 1966 to 1972) about 21 %. The percentages of smokers in the German population and among foreign workers, the development and age structure of the resident population and of the percentage of foreign workers were utilised to also ascertain from the above results the development of the condensate and nicotine consumption of the potential and actual smokers. The result is again a reduction of consumption of 27 % each for moist condensate and nicotine and 20 % for dry condensate (in the shorter period 1966 to 1972). If these figures are converted to the equivalent of cigarettes of the type smoked in 1961 the consumption of 22 cigarettes a smoker established for 1972 corresponds to a mere 11 cigarettes of the type smoked in 1961. The actual daily consumption at that time, however, was about 15 cigarettes a smoker

Treatment of cigarette paper with ammonium sulfamate was found to cause changes in the composition of cigarette smoke, in the concentrations of components of both the gas and particulate phases. The concentrations of several polycyclic hydrocarbons were reduced by over 25 %, though benzo[a]pyrene was virtually unchanged. The concentrations of two nitrosamines were also reduced more than 25 %, while indole and skatole concentrations were reduced about 15 %. Among the gas phase components, acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde were reduced about 20 %; only carbon monoxide was moderately increased. Since these tests explored only small segments of the spectrum of cigarette smoke components, it is not known which of the observed reductions, if any, contributed to the reduction of biological activity of the smoke of treated cigarettes reported by Bock et al. (8). The tests indicate only that the nature of the smoke has been modified in several respects. The tar and nicotine yield of the treated cigarette was higher than that of the control cigarette, but this can be compensated for by reducing the diameter or length of tobacco rod available to be smoked

The cadmium, nickel and lead contents of a variety of tobacco types and their respective cigarette smokes have been measured by atomic absorption analysis. Their levels in tobacco were found to be in the ranges 0.5 to 3.5, 4 to 9.5 and 8 to 23 µg/g respectively. The transfer of cadmium from tobacco to mainstream particulate phase was less than 25%, whereas for nickel it was less than 5% and for lead less than 10 %. Commercial filters were found to retain more than 50% of cadmium presented to them. The Ievels of the metals in the vapour phase portion of smoke were found to be lower than those in the particulate phase, values for lead being higher than those of cadmium or nickel. A smalI number of samples have been examined with respect to country of origin, curing processes and plant position which show some differences in metal content. These differences, in our opinion, are indicative of the Iikely spread of values rather than reflecting real differences due to the source of the tobacco or its treatment after harvesting

This paper describes a method for the extraction, separation and determination of amino acids, both free and protein-bound, which are present in tobacco. The introduction of the lyophilization process and the ''cold finger'' technique made it possible to obtain a good purification of extracts which, unlike the previous methods, have been preserved for a long time. The combined use of column chromatography and mass spectrometry enabled all amino acids present to be detected. The analyses carried out on different tobacco varieties showed certain quantitative and qualitative differences in the composition of amino acids and only small quantitative variations in the composition of protein-bound amino acids

An automated procedure for the determination of total alpha-amino acids in aqueous solution has been developed which utilizes the Technicon Auto Analyser I. The procedure is based in part on a manual method proposed by Van Slyke wherein the CO₂ produced in the reaction of amino acids with ninhydrin serves as a measure of the alpha-amino acid concentration. Evaluation of the procedure for the determination of alpha-amino nitrogen in extracts of flue-cured and Burley tobaccos indicates that adequately precise results are obtained which show a fairly high correlation (r = 0.8 to 0.9) with results by the classical Van Slyke nitrous acid procedure. The relation of the amino acid content of a variety of tobacco types, as determined by ion-exchange chromatography, to alpha-amino nitrogen results by the automated and nitrous acid procedures has been investigated. While the results indicate that neither procedure provides consistently accurate values for total amino acids in tobacco, it was found that the results by the automated procedure show a somewhat higher degree of correlation with total alpha-amino acids. It is therefore concluded that the automated procedure may be potentially useful in the evaluation of tobacco

If the firmness of a burning filter cigarette is measured during a puff interval at a distance of 40 mm before the end of the cigarette's butt, it is of negligible effect on the results whether the cigarette has been extinguished immediately prior to taking the measurement or whether smouldering is maintained during the measuring action. This holds true, however, only on condition that mechanical smoking is carried out under standard Coresta conditions or with variable duration of the second puff, if the latter does not last longer than 4 sec. Under these circumstances, the temperature increase of the tobacco rod is very smalI and does not constitute a causal factor of possible alterations in firmness

The author's method (developed in 1966) for the determination of maleic hydrazide in tobacco has been improved by the introduction of a purification step using activated carbon. Interferences produced by reactive compounds other than maleic hydrazide can thus be eliminated. The procedure proved to be suitable for routine analysis. The coefficient of variation was found to range from 1 to 7 %. Added amounts of maleic hydrazide have been recovered at the 90-105 % level. The accuracy of the procedure could be confirmed by results comparatively obtained in three laboratories