Sidestream smoke, which is the smoke that comes fron the lit end of the cigarette, is an area of active research and development for cigarette designers. The overall objective of this research was to develop a 'cubicle' based methodology for the sensory assessment of sidestream smoke. The volume of the cubicles is approximately 1 m³. The first stage was to ensure that the cubicles were suitably sealed by monitoring the CO decay rates generated from sidestream smoke. The second stage was to, identify the optimum amount of smoke to be assessed by building a dose-response relationship between the amount of sidestream smoke and the intensity of the sensory perception (irritation and odour).To achieve the second stage, a known reference standard (1-butanol) was used to determine the detection threshold under the conditions of the cubicle method. This approach was carried out by generating aerosols from serial dilutions of 1-butanol. The aerosols were generated using an ultrasonic particle generator (SONAER model 241PG) and their respective particle concentrations were measured using a Condensation Particle Counter (TSI model 3022). The aerosols were assessed to measure psychometric functions for the detection of odour and nose irritation. The detection threshold was obtained at the 50% chance-corrected probability point. Panellists were then trained to score intensity ratings using ratio-scaling (magnitude estimation) and a standardized procedure using 1-butanol with a reference (fixed modulus).Subsequently, panellists were trained to rate a range of sidestream smoke. concentrations (reference cigarette 3R4F). The optimum sidestream smoke concentration to be assessed was identified half-way between detection and terminal threshold. The cubicle method was used to examine a commercial cigarette and a prototype generating known sidestream smoke amounts.