Document 6BkkjRbZVoOkjydvE5zV5JrxR

FILE NAME: Smoking (SMOK) DATE: 1956 Apr 16 DOC#: SMOK059 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Trade Journal Article - Round, Firm, and Filtered Cigarette Production, Billions 400 300 200 100 % 1951 1952 1953 195: Growth in Filter-Cigarette Consumption --to 2 0 % of M arket-*Opens Chemical A New Corporate Pattern to Fit Stauffer's Growth . . . . . . . . . American Research: Money to Back Bright Id e a s . . . Tailoring Organic Coatings for Corrosion Control . ; . . . . . . . . - t - ? I NfJITi (3V3H20iGH i Technician at P. Lorillard's Jersey City labs measures amount of tar and nicotine in Kent filter-tip cigarettes i Round, Firm, and Filtered A fast expanding market for the chemical industry, filter cigarettes last year required more than $10 million worth of filter materials B iggest new s in c ig a r ettes is filters. A look at any cigarette counter tells the story. Now more than a dozen different filter brands await the smoker's choice. Demand is soaring. In 1951, filter cigarettes accounted for less than 1% of the nation's total tax-paid cigarette output. By 1954, the figure had climbed to 10% and last year reached 2 0 % . This figu re may rise to 3 3 9c an d go even higher. (In Switzerland, some 65% of all cigarettes sold today are Biter-tipped.) Once poohpoohed as refinements intended for dilettantes and eccentric millionaires, filter cigarettes have by now gained acceptance among the public. For the chemical industry, cigarette filter materials have become an increas ingly important market, now valued at over $10 million a year. Last year, for example, some 22 million pounds of cellulose acetate (in the form of a ropelike material consisting of thou sands of parallel filaments) were used in filter cigarettes, compared to about 3 million pounds in 1953. Manufac tu re d for the c igare tte in d u stry by Tennessee Eastman and Celanese, cel lulose acetate is today the most widely used cigarette filter. Customarily, cellulose acetate filters are treated with so-called plasticizers, which are actually sizing agents. These materials, which stiffen the filaments so they do not lose their shape when the cigarette is smoked, are another mar ket for the chemical industry. In addi tion to cellulose acetate, numerous other materials are used in filters. Over the years, cigarette manufac turers have tested hundreds of possible filter agents. In the words of one ciga rette manufacturer: "We have been ap proached by suppliers of every con ceivable type of filter material short of steel and concrete." Cigarette chem ists have explored the use of treated paper, diatomaceous earth, activated alumina, silica gel, bentonite, and vari ous mineral fibers. There has also been talk of a plastic filtQ;, possibly made from polyurethane foam. 1 ft A A r i P K l A PR I I 16. 1 9 5 6 Millions of smokers (smokers include about 60% of the men in the U. S. and about 30% of the women) use filter cigarettes. On the average, the smoke of filter cigarettes contains about 30% less tar and about 20% less nicotine. Specifically, the smoke of the average unfiltered king-size cigarette contains 23 mg. of tar and 3.3 mg. of nicotine, compared to the smoke of the average king-size cigarette with filter which contains 16 mg. of tar and 2.7 mg. of nicotine. Early Developments Despite all the advertising hoopla of the past few years, filters are nothing new. Handmade filter cigarettes were available in Europe by 1900. Later, various filter brands with exotic names like Obak and Imperiale began trick ling into the U. S. market. As the first major U. S. development in this field, Benson & Hedges brought out filter-tip Parliament in 1931. Five years later, Brown & Williamson intro duced Viceroy. Throughout these early years, filter brands (then known as mouthpiece cigarettes) continued to be marketed in a relatively sedate, unobtrusive fashion, with an eye on the carriage trade. Then came Lorillard's introduction of Kent in 1952. Amid a splurge of full- "Smoking hasn't hurt him physically, but mentally he's a wreck. He's tor tured with the fear that his cigarette doesn't have as many filter traps as any other brand. . . " Who Uses What Du M aurier Kent L&M M arlboro Viceroy Vogue W inston ! i1 Cellulose acetate H erbert Tareyton Purified cellulose paper and activated charcoal Parliam ent Absorbent cotton L&M (with cellu lose a c e t a t e ) Kent (with cellu lo se a c e t a t e and cotton) H ale j Cellulose powder j Crocidolite (asbestoslike 1 material) j Cotton impregnated i with chlorophyll _ --- page ads, Lorillard announced the unique virtues of Kent's Micronite filter ( "developed by researchers in atomic energy plants" ). This filter, used dur ing World War II in gas masks and later in the removal of airborne radio active materials in AEC installations, was reported to be seven times more effective than any other leading ciga rette filter. In fact, the original Micro nite filter was so effective that it had to be modified; some people felt they were smoking nothing but hot air. Improvements were continually be ing made in cigarette filters. Brown & Williamson, which up until 1952 had been using treated crepe paper in its Viceroys, switched to cellulose acetate. As the first cigarette company to use cellulose acetate filters, B&W made a point of promoting the "20,000 individ ual filters in every Viceroy tip." Filter cigarettes began catching on fast. In 1953, close to 14 billion were sold in the U. S.--mainly Viceroy, Kent, and Parliament. Although this was still only about 3.5% of the nation's total tax-paid cigarette output, the cigarette industry's Big Three sensed a trend. Liggett & Meyers (Chester field) introduced L&M in October 1953; R. J. Reynolds (Camel) launched Winston in March 1954; and five months later American Tobacco (Lucky Strike) brought out filter-tip Herbert Tareyton. Prime Factor: Cancer Scare Behind all this was not merely the razzle-dazzle of multimillion-dollar ad vertising campaigns or the capricious ness of public taste. By far the biggest single factor was what the tobacco in dustry has come to call the Cancer Scare. Since 1953, widespread newspaper, magazine, radio, arid TV coverage has been given to reports that cigarette smoking is a factor in lung cancer, a disease which in the U. S. causes about 25,000 deaths annually. A study of 684 cases of lung cancer indicated that only 1.3% were nonsmokers, -while 68% smoked more than one pack a day and over 807o had smoked more than 30 years. In a later study, the Ameri can Cancer Society reported that men who smoke cigarettes regularly have seven times the lung cancer death rate of those who nes'er smoke. Blow to Sales The public obviously did not take all this with a "tut-tut, so what" attitude. Millions of people suddenly began smoking fewer cigarettes or cut out smoking entirely. Amid all the excite ment, cigarette sales, which normally increase about 4 to 6% a year, dropped 2% in 1953 and 4.5% in 1954. As one observer put it: ' What quickly helped to pull the cigarette industry out of a tailspin was the immediate public ac ceptance of filters." In fact last year, to a considerable extent because of filters, cigarette consumption, reversing its two-vear downtrend, increased 3.4% over 1954, but was still below the 1952 peak. With the increasing attention being paid to filter cigarettes, the tobacco in dustry, as nes*er before, intensified its research on Thl central problem: the nature of cigarette smoke. As has long rryzz- . --^ 4,. * i * i Y^ One dl the nation's heaviest cigarette smokers, this smoking machine in the labs of P. Lorillard has tested thousand of cigarettes for smoking qualities and nicotine and tar content as part of the research on Kent cigarettes. Basic material in Kent s filter is Micronite, which filters out particles as small as 0.2^i been known, this smoke is a complex mixture of gases, liquids, and solids. (A single puff may contain as many as 25 billion smoke particles.) Included among the gases are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbonyl sulfide, acetylene, methane, ethane, propane, butane, and other compounds. In the liquid and solid phases are the nicotine and tars. (The tars alone contain at least 45 different compounds and many more are suspected.) In the solid and liquid phases are virtually all of the ingredients that give tobacco its char acteristic flavor and aroma. In almost all cases, cigarette filters today are mechanical in action. They trap a portion of the solid and liquid particles, but essentially none of the gases. An exception to this is the Herbert Tareyton filter, which contains activated charcoal to adsorb part of the gases, while a portion of the solids and liquids is trapped by purified cellulose paper. In cigarette filtration, the manufac turer is not too sure about what he is actually trying to remove. He prob ably wants to reduce the concentration of the toxic material, nicotine, and of the tar ingredients known to be irri tants. And, if one or more compounds are found to be factors in lung cancer, he certainly wants to eliminate these also. But which specific compounds are involved in lung cancer--no one knows for sure. Of course, it does not take a laboratory wizard to develop a filter that will remove massive portions of the smoke. But will the resulting cigarette be so stripped of flavor and aroma that it will not really be worth smoking? In their continuing search for filters, manufacturers are looking for mate rials that: Will selectively remove from the smoke the unwanted substances, while eliminating a minimum of those that are not only harmless but contribute to smoking satisfaction Are entirely safe materials themselves Are tasteless and have an attractive appearance and feel Do not interfere appreciably with the flow of cigarette smoke Are inexpensive and simple to manu facture and incorporate into cigarettes Of course, cigarette manufacturers can try entirely different approaches that do not involve filters. One method is the use of special varieties of tobacco. The John Alden brand, for example, is made from tobacco containing a naturally low nicotine content. As another technique, unwanted in gredients can be greatly reduced dur ing the processing of the tobacco itself. Am extraction process is the basis for the low nicotine content of King Sano cigarettes. However, many manufac turers who have experimented with such treatment find it general]}' unsatis factory because it can cause downgrad ing in tobacco quality. A Chemical Approach As a different approach, some com panies have been experimenting with the impregnation of the filter or ciga rette paper with compounds that elimi nate unwanted ingredients from to bacco smoke by reacting with them chemically. An example is the recent research of Rand Development Corp., on the addition of ammonium sulfamate to cigarette paper. When sub jected to the heat of the burning ciga rette, ammonium sulfamate gives off ammonia, which reacts with the re portedly carcinogenic compound, 3,4benzopyrene, found in low concentra tion in the smoke of tobacco and ciga rette paper. Obviously, in the competitive ciga rette industry, research directors do not make a practice of sounding off about latest research projects. Yet even now there are indications that the chemical approach to the treatment of cigarette smoke is gaining ground. Says the re search director of one company: "The cigarette filter of the future will involve selectivity based on chemical reactions. By impregnation of the filter with the proper chemical, the objectionable ele ments in the smoke can be removed without affecting the other elements that give aroma and satisfaction. . . . We are positive that cigarette filters are here to stay, and we are equally confi dent that the filter of the future will involve chemicals irc,the broad sense." 1 8 4 8 C & E N A P R I L 16, 1956