HPHC Testing of Tobacco and Smoke to Examine Cigarette Temporal Variability

Summary Commercial cigarettes were analyzed for harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) in tobacco and smoke to investigate temporal product variability independent of analytical variability over one week, one year, and three years. Cigarettes from the worldwide market with various design features were collected over a 3-year period, stored, and tested concurrently for HPHCs to minimize analytical variability; repeat testing of reference cigarette 3R4F was included as an analytical control for the study design. Physical parameters were found to be relatively consistent. No trends in variability were noted based on blend type, smoke analyte matrix, or magnitude of an HPHC's yield. Combustion-related HPHCs generally showed low variation. Long-term batch-to-batch variability was found to be higher than short-term variability for tobacco-related compounds that have the potential to vary over time due to weather and agronomic practices. “Tar”, nicotine, and carbon monoxide were tested in multiple labs and showed greater lab-to-lab variability than batch-to-batch variability across all phases. Based on the results of this study, commercial cigarette products appear to have relatively low product variability. The low analyte variability noted in this study with products tested under unconventionally controlled analytical conditions serves to indicate that analytical variability may be a significant contributor to overall variability for general product testing over time and in interlaboratory studies. Laboratory controls and using a matched reference product across studies and between laboratories are important to assess testing differences and variability.