Comparative Study of the Composition of the Mainstream Smoke of Five Brands Factory-made-cigarettes and Their Counterpart Roll-your-own Tobaccos

Abstract

A comparative analysis of the mainstream smoke (gas fraction and condensed fraction) obtained from 5 brands of roll-your-own (RYO) tobaccos and the same brand of manufactured cigarettes (MC) commercialized in Spain has been carried out. Both types of tobaccos were smoked using after conditioning under the same conditions and using the same commercial tubes with no vent holes. The average CO yield of the five RYO brands is 27.5 mg/g of smoked tobacco, whereas for MC tobaccos the average is 19.2 mg/g of smoked tobacco. Other harmful compounds present in the gas fraction such as aldehydes are also more abundant in RYO tobaccos, while aromatics, paraffins and olefins are more abundant in MC tobaccos. The results show that in general RYO tobaccos also provide higher yields for the compounds analyzed in the condensed fraction than the MC tobaccos of the same brand. The average of nicotine and tar (in mg/g smoked tobacco) is 2.42 and 19.92, respectively for the five RYO tobaccos and 1.78 and 14.47 for the MC brands.