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CORESTA Congress, Kyoto, 2004, SS 15

A systematic study on the free radicals in cigarette smoke: elimination and biomedical evaluation

ZHOU Jun; ZHU Maoxiang; QU Zhigang; LIU Jiahong; YAN Lihong; YANG Zhihua; CAO Zhenshan
Tsinghua University, Chemistry Dept, Beijing, China.

A new method to eliminate free radicals in cigarette smoke was studied systematically. A low-free-radical cigarette and its control sample cigarette made with the same tobacco blend were evaluated systematically by biomedical tests. In this study for the elimination of free radicals in cigarette smoke, a new free radical eliminator, SRM was selected for making low-free-radical cigarettes. SRM and other anti-oxidants were evaluated using in vitro ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) elimination experiments. These involved the protection of Hemoglobin and Human Chromosome 11 from mutations induced by ROS. Two technological routes were used in the production of the low-free-radical cigarettes with SRM. One is by adding SRM to triacetate glycerol to produce complex cigarette filters for cigarettes. The other route is by adding SRM processed charcoal to complex cigarette filters for cigarettes. Up to 69.1% of gas-phase free radicals can be eliminated from the smoke of cigarettes made with SRM. Biomedical experiments such as acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, immune function, mutation test and reproductive toxicity, conducted with the low-free-radical cigarettes and with controls made with the same tobacco blend have shown that the toxicity of the low-free-radical cigarettes was considerably lower than that of the controls.