Volume 28 (2018): Issue 2 (August 2018)

This research analysed in detail the performance of the new alternative ignition propensity test prescribed in the standard ASTM E2187-16, which is based on the utilization of a substrate comprising a thin steel plate along with one filter paper. The analysis was performed both experimentally, by means of infrared temperature measurements, and theoretically by using a comprehensive finite element model that was able to predict the temperature of the substrate with errors of only 7.3% and 15.7% in space and time, respectively. While the new alternative test was able to reduce the variability of the heat absorbance from 33% to only 4% with respect to the conventional tests, it showed several downsides that critically reduce its reliability. The heat absorbance of the alternative test did not correctly emulate the conventional procedure as it absorbed as much heat as twice. The gravity effect on the plate increased the air gap thickness more than twice, thereby decreasing potentially the heat absorbance by 13%. In addition, a mechanical analysis showed that compressive stresses due to high temperature gradients could cause irreversible buckling, creep and yielding of the plate. Experiments showed that in fact the concavity of the plate was prone to increase after testing. Assuming the maximum concavity allowed by the standards, the heat absorbance was halved in respect to a perfectly flat plate. In view of these results, the utilization of the conventional test method still appears clearly more appropriate than the alternative one.

It has been suggested that the common practice of adding ingredients to cigarette tobacco might affect patterns of smoking initiation, consumption or cessation. These suggestions have themselves prompted claims that regulation of such ingredients may contribute to reducing the prevalence of tobacco use and dependence among new and continuing smokers. In order to investigate the evidential basis for such claims, we performed a cross-sectional statistical analysis of smoking quit ratios across a sample of 80 countries, comparing those with high market shares of traditional blended cigarettes and those with high market shares of Virginia-style cigarettes, utilizing the fact that traditional blended cigarettes contain added ingredients whereas Virginia-style cigarettes contain no or very few added ingredients. Our results support the findings of our previous study performed in 2012 (across a sample of 46 countries), showing no evidence that the hypothesised effects exist with regard to quit ratios, and find that the use of ingredients can account for virtually none of the crosscountry variation in quit behaviour. This conclusion is robust to alternative specifications of variables, and to controlling for a variety of socio-economic indicators in a multivariate regression setting. We find socio-economic variables - notably income, education and internet access - exert a significant effect on the quit ratio, inducing higher cessation rates as standards in medical care and information improve as societies develop. We also find various tobacco control measures induce high quit ratios across countries. Both of these findings are in line with existing international evidence on smoking patterns.

E-cigarette use has increased markedly in the past five years; however, current data suggest that conventional smokers switching to e-cigarettes may account for much of the recent increase. How individuals use these products has strong implications for nicotine intake and exposure to other potential toxicants. Studies assessing e-cigarette user behaviours, including puff volume and duration, report wide variations across products, settings, and individuals. Understanding the factors that affect puffing topography will be central to standardising protocols for testing aerosol emissions and regulating e-cigarettes. The amount of aerosol generated can be influenced by a number of factors, including product design, vaping topography, and device setting as highlighted in this review. Further work to understand how the combination of these parameters affects the amount of aerosol generated will be central to defining protocols for testing and regulating e-cigarettes.

Although smoking is responsible for a huge variety of diseases which result in ~16% of the fatalities in the United States and Europe respectively, cigarettes are still being sold far and wide. Mentholated cigarettes were introduced in 1920, since then to today social recognition and the use of flavored tobacco products is still increasing especially within young people. The EU adopted as its measure to reduce tobacco use among adolescents the prohibition of tobacco products with a characteristic flavor by means of the directive 2014/40/EU of the European Parliament and the Council.

For this reason, we developed a method for the simultaneous determination of 14 tobacco flavors like menthol, menthol-like and other compounds via gas-chromatography coupled with mass-spectrometry (GC/MS) and analyzed 21 different tobacco products (mentholated and non-mentholated cigarettes, as well as electrically heated tobacco products (EHTPs)) of the German market regarding their flavoring compound patterns. The highest amounts of flavoring compounds were determined in menthol cigarettes (~10,000 μg/stick) whereas non-mentholated cigarettes and EHTPs featured only ~10 μg/stick. In total, seven flavoring compounds like menthol, L-menthone, L-linalool, isopulegol, geraniol, camphor and WS-3 (cooling agent) were available within the samples. Mentholated cigarettes could be clearly identified since > 99% of the measured flavoring compounds was represented by menthol. Although flavoring compounds in non-mentholated cigarettes and EHTPs were quite comparable, they could be differentiated due to different flavoring compound patterns. Brandspecific flavoring compound patterns were not recognized.

An array of pyrazines have been synthesized using sugars derived from tobacco cellulose (CDS), ammonium hydroxide, and hydrolyzed tobacco F1 protein as a source of free amino acids (isolated amino acids from F1 hydrolysate, from filtered F1 hydrolysate and from non-filtered F1 hydrolysate). All reactions were performed at 120 °C for 60 min using a 40-mL Parr reaction vessel. Results showed that the addition of hydrolyzed F1 protein as free amino acid source increased the number of pyrazines with branched alkyl chains (for example, 2-butyl-3-methyl pyrazine) compared to when no amino acids were added. However, using isolated amino acids from hydrolyzed F1 protein versus just hydrolyzed F1 protein (filtered or not filtered) did not make a difference in yield or type of branched pyrazines. When non-filtered hydrolyzed F1 protein was used, the solution was much more viscous and contained suspended solid material when compared to the use of filtered hydrolyzed F1 protein. Addition of threonine (THR) to the reaction mixture did not increase the yield of pyrazines but did slightly shift the distribution of pyrazines toward those with three and four carbons attached. Similar but not identical arrays of pyrazines were obtained when somewhat resembling reaction conditions were applied on a larger reaction scale (~1.5 L).

A significant 50%-decrease in pyrazine yield was observed when the reaction temperature was reduced from 120 to 100 °C. No noticeable difference in the array of pyrazines from these two reactions was observed. In the majority of cases, the presence of free amino acids resulted in an increase in pyrazine yield coupled with a change in the qualitative array of pyrazines. These results clearly illustrate that sugar prepared from tobacco cellulose (glucose) can be used just like high fructose corn syrup to prepare flavor compounds via Amadori and Maillard reactions. The evidence highlights that hydrolyzed amino acids from F1 tobacco protein can be used via Maillard reactions to produce complementary arrays of pyrazine flavor compounds.