Determination of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields in the smoke of bidi cigarettes

A survey of the nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide (CO) levels in mainstream smoke from 21 brands of bidi cigarettes and five brands of traditional cigarettes was conducted using a variation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) standardized cigarette smoking machine method. The primary difference between this method and the FTC method was a reduction of the 60-s puff interval to 15s. The shorter puff interval was required to prevent the bidi cigarettes from self-extinguishing and may represent a closer approximation to human usage. The goal of this study was to evaluate the smoke-delivery potential for tar, nicotine, and CO in mainstream smoke from bidi cigarettes compared with traditional domestic cigarettes smoked under identical conditions. Approximately half of the bidi brands examined were marketed as filtered varieties. Unlike traditional cigarettes, the filtered and unfiltered bidi brands yielded comparable smoke deliveries. Thus, a filtered bidi cigarette brand does not provide any harm-reduction benefit that might result from a reduction in levels of tar, nicotine, and CO compared with an unfiltered variety. Our findings indicate that bidi cigarettes can deliver high levels of tar (77.9 +/- 9.5 mg/bidi), nicotine (2.7 +/- .4 mg/bidi), and CO (39.2 +/- 5.7mg/bidi). In comparison, traditional cigarettes smoked using the bidi cigarette protocol have lower tar and CO yields, but have nicotine deliveries comparable with bidi cigarettes.