Evaluation of biomarkers of exposure to selected cigarette smoke constituents in adult smokers switched to carbon-filtered cigarettes in short-term and long-term clinical studies

Cigarette smoke is a complex aerosol that includes a gas vapor phase and a particulate phase. Inclusion of activated carbon in the cigarette filter can reduce some of the gas-phase smoke constituents implicated as toxicologically relevant. The present study evaluated exposure to selected gas-phase constituents when adult smokers switched to prototype cigarettes with a highly activated carbon filter. Smokers (N=160) in two separate studies were randomized to continue to smoke conventional cigarettes (either a 6-mg or 11-mg FTC tar product), to smoke test cigarettes containing carbon filters (comparable tar levels), or to stop smoking. After completing 8 days in controlled smoking conditions (short-term studies), smokers had the option to continue in 24-week long-term ambulatory studies with unrestricted smoking. Urinary excretion of mercapturic acid metabolites of 1,3-butadiene, acrolein, and benzene; nicotine and five of its metabolites, total NNAL, and 1-hydroxypyrene were measured at baseline in the conventional cigarette group, in all groups in the short-term studies, and every 4 weeks in the long-term studies. In the short-term studies, statistically significant reductions (70%, p.001) in gas-phase biomarker levels were observed in the test cigarette group for both tar level products compared with the conventional cigarette group. These reductions were similar to those observed in the stop-smoking groups. The reductions continued consistently (p.001) throughout the long-term studies. Switching to test cigarettes minimally affected the particulate-phase biomarkers. Statistically significant and consistent reductions in selected gas vapor phase biomarkers were observed when smokers switched to activated carbon filter cigarettes.