Review Of Bat Research Program, 1983

In May 1983 BAT conducted an extensive review of its group research at Southampton. BAT's research operations at that time were divided into fifteen work areas: Biological, Filters, Nitrosamines, Future Technologies, Combustion, Sidestream, Human Smoking/Smoke Aerosol, Psychology and Sensory Testing, Smoke Taste and Flavour Improvement, Leaf and Biotechnology, Tobacco Processing, Tobacco Expansion, Novel Cigarette Making Technology, Process Control and Physical Test Method Development, and Chemical Test Method Development and Analytical Projects. The review of BAT's research program summarizes the activities in each of these work areas {1180.17}.

Work on environmental tobacco smoke was being carried out in several of the work areas. For example, the review notes that 20 percent of the work in the Biological area was related to the evaluation of sidestream smoke. In the Nitrosamine work area, "the importance was emphasized of ... Work on both mainstream and sidestream [emphasis in original]" {1180.17}. In addition, one of the projects in the Combustion work area was related to "The mechanism by which magnesium oxide filler in the cigarette paper reduces visible sidestream" [emphasis added] {1180.17}.

In the Sidestream work area, BAT's research effort was directed at designing a low-sidestream cigarette, primarily by developing new types of cigarette paper that would release less irritating or smaller volumes of sidestream smoke.

The general thrust of the work on sidestream is to design and evaluate cigarettes with reduced emission of sidestream smoke. This will also include the generation of data on the build-up of smoke in confined areas and the effect of this on occupants and furnishings. The project areas are:—

This research was aimed primarily at reducing the visibility and irritation of sidestream smoke. The review does not mention any attempts to study the health effects of sidestream smoke released from these new products. Evidently, BAT's first inclination was to develop a "health-image" cigarette to respond to public concern over ETS, just as it had initially responded to concern over active smoking by introducing filter cigarettes (see chapter 2).

BAT's 1983 review of its work program also mentions several other projects related to environmental tobacco smoke. For example, "Interest was expressed in determining the extent to which the level of visible sidestream smoke influences subjects [sic ] irritation response" {1180.17}. In addition, a smoking machine was being built that would collect both mainstream and sidestream smoke from the same cigarette; and the range of sidestream analysis was being expanded to include more vapor phase components, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. Taken together, these projects indicate that BAT's scientists were making a sophisticated evaluation of the chemical, social, and biological aspects of environmental tobacco smoke. The primary focus of its program, however, was on producing a new cigarette with reduced sidestream smoke emissions.

Following this review of the research program, BAT subsidiaries were asked to provide priority rankings for each research project {1180.18}. The projects were rated on a scale of 1 to 3, with 1 having the highest priority. The documents include the rankings provided by the major countries in the BAT group—Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, and the United States—along with the average score that each project received. Virtually all the projects related to environmental tobacco smoke, described above, were given a priority of 1 by most of the delegates {1180.18}.