Characteristic Human Individual Puffing Profiles Can Generate More TNCO than ISO and Health Canada Regimes on Smoking Machine When the Same Brand Is Smoked

Abstract

Human smoking behavior influences exposure to smoke toxicants and is important for risk assessment. In a prospective observational study, the smoking behavior of Marlboro smokers was measured for 36 h. Puff volume, duration, frequency, flow and inter-puff interval were recorded with the portable CReSSmicro™ device, as has often been done by other scientists. However, the use of the CReSSmicro™ device may lead to some registration pitfalls since the method of insertion of the cigarette may influence the data collection. Participants demonstrated consistent individual characteristic puffing behavior over the course of the day, enabling the creation of a personalized puffing profile. These puffing profiles were subsequently used as settings for smoking machine experiments and tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide (TNCO) emissions were generated. The application of human puffing profiles led to TNCO exposures more in the range of Health Canada Intense (HCI)-TNCO emissions than for those of the International Standardization Organization (ISO). Compared to the ISO regime, which applies a low puff volume relative to human smokers, the generation of TNCO may be at least two times higher than when human puffing profiles were applied on the smoking machine. Human smokers showed a higher puffing intensity than HCI and ISO because of higher puffing frequency, which resulted in more puffs per cigarette, than both HCI and ISO.