It is commonplace to use alternate materials from different suppliers interchangeably in the manufacture of cigarettes. To be used interchangeably, these alternate materials will often meet the same specification, perform the same in the finished product, and result in the same finished product specifications even though the materials may not be chemically identical. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact, if any, on HPHC yields from the use of several different types of alternate non-tobacco materials in PM USA cigarette products.

The alternate materials used in this study are all commercially available materials and included two plug wraps, two base tipping papers, two cigarette seam adhesives, two tipping adhesives, and three filter tow materials. To evaluate the various combinations of alternate materials, the study employed an adaptation of a fractional factorial using 16 combinations of the alternate materials. Using a designed experiment allowed us to estimate the effects of the alternate materials with much greater precision than a “one factor at a time design.” Each of the cigarettes in the study used the same base design with matched tobacco filler and cigarette paper, so that the products were the same except for the alternate materials under study.

The cigarettes were tested for the smoke constituents listed in the FDA abbreviated HPHC list both under ISO and Health Canada Intense smoking regimes in ISO 17025 accredited laboratories. The results of this study demonstrate that the use of these alternate materials does not impact the HPHC yields of the cigarette product. The estimated differences in HPHC yields were all numerically small, and, after adjusting for testing multiplicity, none of the estimated differences were statistically significant.