The Life Sciences Research Office (LSRO) has released a new report, The
Feasibility of Testing Ingredients Added to Cigarettes.
A National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report in 2001,
Clearing the Smoke, recommended that manufacturers test ingredients
added to cigarettes. However, that report did not contain sufficiently
detailed information about how to test ingredients. Philip Morris USA,
a manufacturer of cigarettes, tasked LSRO, a nonprofit, scientific
research organization, with supplying the additional details. LSRO
assembled a multidisciplinary advisory panel and divided the project
into three phases:
(1) the feasibility of testing ingredients,
(2) the scientific criteria to apply in testing ingredients, and
(3) reviews of specific ingredients.
The members of LSRO’s ad-hoc expert panel are:
Carroll E. Cross, M.D. Shayne C. Gad, Ph.D., D.A.B.T.
Sacramento, CA Cary, NC
Donald E. Gardner, Ph.D., F.A.T.S. Louis D. Homer, M.D., Ph.D.
Raleigh, NC Portland, OR
Rudolph J. Jaeger, Ph.D., D.A.B.T. Robert Orth, Ph.D.
Westwood, New Jersey Cedar Hill, MO
Resha M. Putzrath*, Ph.D., D.A.B.T. Emanuel Rubin, M.D.
Washington, DC Philadelphia, PA
James L. Schardein, M.S. F.A.T.S. Thomas J. Slaga, Ph.D.
Leesburg, FL Denver, CO
Cigarettes are, by definition, made from tobacco and paper only.
Cigarette smoking creates known adverse human health risks. A
nontobacco ingredient added to a cigarette could increase these risks.
Relative risk compares the risk of smoking cigarettes with an added
ingredient to the risk of smoking cigarettes without the ingredient.
Relative risk could change after adding a nontobacco ingredient in three
ways: (1) The ingredient could transfer in the smoke, be inhaled, and
cause an adverse effect. In addition, the ingredient could undergo a
change in chemical structure, as a result of concurrent tobacco
combustion, and the resulting pyrolysis products could transfer into the
smoke. (2) The chemical composition of the tobacco smoke could change,
increasing the known adverse health effects of smoking. (3) Exposure to
cigarette smoke constituents could change, though a change in smoking
behavior. A person could smoke more cigarettes or smoke the same
number more intensely.
To prepare the report, LSRO’s staff and its advisors reviewed papers and
from the published scientific literature. LSRO also solicited public
comments and held an open meeting in August 2002 to discuss the pending
report. The report concludes that a review of the effects of the
nontobacco ingredients added to cigarettes, while challenging, is
feasible, scientifically achievable, and potentially worthwhile as a
public health objective. Because chapter five provides detailed
information about adverse human health effects of cigarette smoking, the
report may interest toxicol at net.bio.net subscribers. In addition, other
chapters cover smoke generation, exposure, dosimetry, and testing.
LSRO’s reports provide information, analysis, and advice about
fundamental issues in areas such as medicine, health care, nutrition,
food safety, and the environment. LSRO is located at 9650 Rockville
Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3998. For further technical information,
please contact Daniel Byrd, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., at (301)634-7030. Copies
of the publication may be obtained from LSRO at 9650 Rockville Pike,
Bethesda, MD 20814-3998 or from the LSRO net site (www.lsro.org).
*/ Through July 2003
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Daniel M. Byrd III, Ph.D., D.A.B.T.
8370 Greensboro Drive, Apt. 708
McLean, VA 22102
(703)848-0100
byrdd at cox.net
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