With the exception of one papirosi cigarette, all were conventional cigarettes, excluding e.g., bidis and herbal products. Different blend types were included in the sampled set, with a large proportion of American and Virginia blends. The dimension of sampled cigarettes covered the whole available range, with diameters between 5.2 mm (superslim) and 8.0 mm (magnum), and rod lengths between 70 mm and 100 mm. Among the sampled brands, filter designs included single and multiple-plug configurations with up to 4 plugs. In some brands, filters contained activated carbon, present either in the tow or in a cavity between two plugs. Some non-filter brands were also sampled. The numbers of samples selected per country

are presented in Table 1, including information regarding their filter design. Prototype cigarettes were manufactured buy Dasatinib to study the impact of adsorbents on cadmium, www.selleckchem.com/products/Staurosporine.html arsenic and lead filtration. The control cigarette (without activated carbon) was designed to mimic a commercial king-size American blend with a 27-mm cellulose acetate plug, a ventilation set at 35% and a resistance to draw

of 100 mm H2O. The cigarette had a 7.5-mg tar delivery under ISO machine-smoking regime. The test prototype differed only from the control in the filter design. The test prototype filter was a 27-mm composite filter, consisting of a 7-mm plug of cellulose acetate at the mouth end abutted to a 20-mm Dalmatian plug into which 80 mg of activated carbon was embedded. The prototype cigarette was designed to same resistance to draw as the control. The test had a 7.2-mg tar delivery under ISO machine-smoking regime. The analyses of the different components in both tobacco filler and smoke were conducted

under contract to Philip Morris International by Labstat International ULC (Kitchener, Ont., Canada), an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory, and were performed according to the official Health Canada methods [31]. Alkaloids in tobacco fillers were analyzed by gas chromatography according to method T-301 [32]; three replicates per sample were conducted. Cadmium, lead and arsenic were analyzed in tobacco fillers according to method T-306 [33]. Three replicates per sample were conducted. After conditioning according to ISO [34], cigarettes Microbiology inhibitor were smoked under both ISO [35] and HCI [36] machine-smoking regimes. Tar, nicotine and CO in mainstream smoke were analyzed according to method T-115 [36]. Eight replicates per sample were performed. Cadmium, lead and arsenic were analyzed in mainstream smoke according to method T-109 [37], with a rotary smoking machine equipped with an electrostatic precipitator. Three replicates per sample were conducted in the case of the market surveys, and 4 per sample in the case of the assessment of dedicated prototypes. The mainstream smoke yields of samples bought in 2012 were from a set that had only been analyzed using the HCI machine-smoking regime.