Brand Cigarillos — A Cheap and Less Harmful Alternative to Cigarettes? Particulate Matter Emissions Suggest Otherwise

Background : Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)-associated particulate matter (PM) constitutes a considerable health risk for passive smokers. It ought to be assessed separately from the other known toxic compounds of tobacco smoke. Brand-specific differences between cigarettes and particularly between cigarettes and favorably taxed cigarillos, are of public interest and therefore worth being investigated. Methods : An automatic environmental tobacco smoke emitter (AETSE) was developed to generate cigarette and cigarillo smoke in a reliable and reproducible way. John Player Special (JPS) Red cigarettes, JPS filter cigarillos and 3R4F standard research cigarettes were smoked automatically in a 2.88 m 3 glass chamber according to a standardized protocol until 5 cm from the top were burned down. Results : Mean concentrations (C mean ) and area of the curve (AUC) of PM 2.5 were measured and compared. C mean PM 2.5 were found to be 804 µg/m 3 for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 1633 µg/m 3 for JPS cigarettes, and 1059 µg/m 3 for JPS filter cigarillos. AUC PM 2.5 -values are 433,873 µg/m 3 ×s for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 534,267 µg/m 3 ×s for JPS Red cigarettes and 782,850 µg/m 3 ×s for JPS filter cigarillos. Conclusion : Potential brand-specific differences of ETS-associated PM emissions among brands of cigarettes, and between cigarettes and cigarillos of the same brand and size should be investigated and published. Information about relative PM-emissions should be printed on the package.