Chemical and physical changes of the cigarette paper can occur during the storage of cigarettes. These changes may have an influence on the smoke yields, the taste of a cigarette and also on the optical properties of the cigarette and the ash appearance during smoking.

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of storage conditions on cigarette paper parameters, smoke yields and ash appearance. In a first step cigarettes were stored under different conditions of temperatures from 22-50 °C at 60 % RH for defined time periods between 11 and 33 days, followed by an analysis of cigarette paper parameters, smoke yields and ash as well as optical appearance (e.g. spotting)

With respect to cigarette paper parameters, the storage conditions show only a minor effect on the basis weight and the air permeability but a statistically significant impact on opacity and brightness. Opacity increased from 73 % to 85 %, while brightness decreased from 87 % to 64 % and the chalk content decreased from 29.5 % to 27 %. The reduction of chalk is a consequence of the migration of ions during storage, which has been reported in other publications. In these publications migration effects were observed for the cations and anions between the tobacco and the paper and may explain the observed change in cigarette paper parameters.

Further the smoke yields of the cigarettes before and after storage were measured. A statistically significant effect on the CO values was observed, which decreased by approximately 10 %, all other smoke yields were substantially unchanged. Furthermore, an influence on the ash and optical appearance was found.

The results show that the main influencing factor is temperature, while the storage time does not affect the yields significantly.