Evaluation of the Genotoxic and Cytotoxic Potential of Mainstream Whole Smoke and Smoke Condensate from a Cigarette Containing a Novel Carbon Filter

A novel carbon filter has been developed which primarily reducesthe amount of certain vapor phase constituents of tobacco smokewith greater efficiency than the charcoal filters of cigarettescurrently in the market In vitro indicators of genotoxic andcytotoxic potential were used to compare the cigarette smokecondensate (particulate phase) or whole cigarette smoke (vaporphase and particulate phase) from cigarettes containing thenovel carbon filter with smoke condensate or whole smoke fromcommercial or prototype cigarettes not containing the novelcarbon filter. Ames bacterial mutagenicity, sister chromatidexchange (SCE) in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, and neutralred cytotoxicity assays in CHO cells were utilized to assessthe genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of the cigarette smokecondensates. SCE and neutral red cytotoxicity assays were utilizedto assess the genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of the wholesmoke. As expected, the novel carbon filter did not significantlyaffect the genotoxic or cytotoxic activity of the smoke condensate,although we did observe that the use of low-nitrogen tobaccoreduced the mutagenicity of the condensate in Salmonella typhimuriumstrain TA98. However, the whole smoke from cigarettes containingthe novel carbon filter demonstrated significant reductionsin genotoxic and cytotoxic potential compared to cigaretteswithout the novel carbon filter. The toxicity of the smoke wascorrelated (r = 0.7662 for cytotoxicity and r = 0.7562 for SCEinduction) to the aggregate mass of several vapor phase components(acetone, acetaldehyde, acrolein, acrylonitrile, 1,3-butadiene,ammonia, NO_x, HCN, benzene, isoprene, and formaldehyde) in thesmoke of the cigarettes utilized in this study. In conclusion,this novel carbon filter, which significantly reduced the amountof carbonyls and other volatiles in mainstream cigarette smoke,resulted in significant reductions in the genotoxic and cytotoxicactivity of the smoke as measured by these assays.