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Tar & Nicotine Numbers

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Analysis from the U.S. Department of Health

Smoking and Tobacco Control

The FTC Cigarette Test Method for Determining Tar, Nicotine, and Carbon Monoxide Yields of U.S. Cigarettes (Excerpts)

Report of the NCI Executive Committee

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Service
National Institutes of Health

Excerpts from Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. 7

On December 5 and 6, 1994, a meeting of the NCI ad hoc expert committee was convened under the aegis of the President's Cancer Panel to examine this issue. The committee consisted of 11 individuals from diverse scientific backgrounds and experience. The committee had the benefit of excellent presentations from 14 experts whose professional careers were not only involved in research on smoking, but who have been active contributors to this field of scientific inquiry. Two of the individual participants were cigarette industry scientists, who participated in all discussions.

From the outset of the committee's deliberations, it was clear that the intent of the meeting was not to redesign the FTC testing protocol but, rather, to examine the protocol and make suggestions for improvements, if warranted. To provide a framework for discussion, the committee was asked to consider three basic questions:

  1. Does the evidence presented clearly demonstrate that changes are needed in the current FTC protocol for measuring tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide? If yes, what changes are required?
  2. Should constituents other than tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide be added to the protocol?
  3. Does the FTC protocol provide information useful to smokers in making decisions about their health?
I. The committee reached the following conclusions with respect to the first question:

  1. The smoking of cigarettes with lower machine-measured yields has a small effect in reducing the risk of cancer caused by smoking, no effect on the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and an uncertain effect on the risk of pulmonary disease. A reduction in machine-measured tar yield from 15 mg tar to 1 mg tar does not reduce the relative risk from 15 to 1.
  2. The FTC test protocol was based on cursory observations of human smoking behavior. Actual human smoking behavior is characterized by wide variations in smoking patterns, which result in wide variations in tar and nicotine exposure. Smokers who switch to lower tar and nicotine cigarettes frequently change their smoking behavior, which may negate potential health benefits.
  3. Accordingly, the committee recommends the following changes to the FTC protocol:
    1. This system should also measure and publish information on the range of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields that most smokers should expect from each cigarette sold in the United States.
    2. This information should be clearly communicated to smokers.
    3. A simple graphic representation should be provided with each pack of cigarettes sold in the United States and in all advertisements. The representation should not imply a one-to-one relationship between measurements and disease risk.
    4. The system must be accompanied by public education to make smokers aware that individual exposure depends on how the cigarette is smoked and that the benefits of switching to lower-yield cigarettes are small compared with quitting.
  4. There should be federal oversight of cigarette testing, but such testing should continue to be performed by the tobacco industry and at industry expense.
  5. The questions involved in the purpose, methodology, and utility of the FTC protocol are complex medical and scientific issues that require ongoing involvement of federal health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  6. The system should be reexamined at least every five years to evaluate whether the protocol is maintaining its utility to the smoker.
  7. When a cigarette manufacturer makes significant changes in cigarette design that affect yields, it should notify the appropriate federal agency.
II. With regard to the second question, the committee recommends that to avoid confusing smokers, no smoke constituents other than tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide be measured and published at the present time. Smokers should be informed of the presence of other hazardous smoke constituents with each package and with all advertisements. These constituents should be classified by toxic effects.

III. In considering the third question, the committee reached the following conclusions:

  1. Information from the testing system is useless to smokers unless they have ready access to it. The information from the testing system should be made available to all smokers, including those who smoke generic brands and other brands not widely advertised.
  2. Brand names and brand classifications such as "light" and "ultralight" represent health claims and should be regulated and accompanied, in fair balance, with an appropriate disclaimer.
  3. The available data suggest that smokers misunderstood the FTC test data. This underscores the need for an extensive public education effort.