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TSRC, Tob. Sci. Res. Conf., 2017, 71, abstr. 060 (also presented at CORESTA SSPT2017)

Handmade premium cigars smoke emissions - limitations related to TNCO determination variability

TEILLET B.(1); SCHULZ C.(2); COLARD S.(1)
(1) SEITA-Imperial Tobacco, Fleury-les-Aubrais, France; (2) Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken, Hamburg, Germany

To date, few studies have been published for handmade premium cigars. The assembly process of a premium cigar involves combining natural leaves which are then rolled by hand. This results in a variable product. In this study, a range of handmade premium cigars were analysed for tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide (TNCO) according to CORESTA recommended methods. These methods were initially developed for testing machine made cigars. Smoke testing of cigars by these methods was challenging and led to variable results.

Challenges were faced due to variation in the diameters of the cigars, measured at 33 mm from the mouth end after cutting. Discrepancies between calculated puff volumes of up to 3 mL per puff were observed for a given ring gauge. In addition, puff counts were highly variable, as high as double for a given product. The yield variability observed ranged from 52 to 160% for tar, 60 to 160 % for nicotine and from 32 to 120% for carbon monoxide.

As a consequence of the substantial variability when smoked, it was not possible to distinguish between different handmade premium cigars, with the exception of the TNCO value for the smallest cigar format when compared to a large cigar. The limitations of TNCO results for premium cigars and the need for method refinement and further investigations are discussed.