Comparative study of the smoke emissions from fine-cut tobacco blends depending on the characteristics of the used RYO/MYO cigarette materials

Abstract

The European tobacco market has experienced significant changes in the last years – with the introduction of new tobacco products and the increased consumption of certain traditional products. Recent research of fine-cut tobacco blends (for RYO and MYO cigarettes) in Bulgaria is very limited, which substantiates the current comparative investigation of the smoke emissions of RYO tobaccos, accounting for the used materials (cigarette paper and filter tips). Three variants of laboratory-made cigarettes from five tobacco blends (A -E) were analyzed: variant I – with ready-to-use cigarette tubes; variant II – with gummed cigarette paper and filter tips with diameter 8 mm and length 15 mm; variant III – with the same cigarette paper and filter tips with diameter 6 mm and length 20 mm. The highest levels of smoke emissions were found for variant I and the minimal -for variant III, with no uniform trend between the blends. The smoke emissions from the analyzed RYO tobaccos exceeded the legal limits for commercial cigarettes, except for nicotine from blends B and D, and CO from blend D in variant III. In all variants, a strong correlation between the studied smoke emissions was observed -positive for nicotine/tar and tar/CO, and negative for nicotine/CO.