Acute toxicity of smoke from different brands of cigarettes, measured in mice

Abstract

Female mice ( CAF1 J ) were made to inhale whole smoke (or its gas phase) from 10 commercial brands of cigarettes (brand names undisclosed), including 6 filter and 4 nonfilter brands and from 1R1 Kentucky reference cigarettes. The animals were exposed alternately to 1:10.8 diluted smoke for 27 sec and to fresh air for 33 sec. Acute toxicity is a function of the survival time of the animals under these conditions (with an inverse relationship). The mean survival times for the 11 brands ranged from 9.5 to 175 min in 18–36 mice per brand. The differences in mean survival times between any 2 brands were statistically significant in 80% of the instances. Although the brands of cigarettes with the highest tar and nicotine deliveries generally caused the shortest survival times and vice versa, the survival time of the animals was obviously only partially determined by either the tar or nicotine deliveries of the cigarettes. Three brands caused markedly higher and 3 brands considerably lower mortality than would have been expected from these chemical determinations. The gas phage of smoke elicited only mipor toxic effects under the test conditions employed. The results suggest that components, other than nicotine, present in the particulate phase of smoke, which occur in concentrations not necessarily proportional to the tar deliveries, contribute significantly to the acute toxicity of cigarette smoke.