AU747793B2 - Smoking articles - Google Patents

Abstract

Use in the tobacco rod of a smoking article of tobacco mixed with a reconstituted tobacco sheet which includes activated carbon particles, surrounded by a paper of CORESTA 20 permeability or greater results in an article having reduced sidestream smoke and selective reduction of certain ingredients in mainstream smoke, whereby the smoker has a perception of increased smoothness.

Description

-1- SMOKING ARTICLES This invention relates to smoking articles such as cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos, and is concerned with the reduction of sidestream smoke from smoking articles.

Sidestream smoke is that which is produced when the article is alight but not being drawn on by the smoker. Mainstream smoke is that which is generated when the smoking article is drawn on by the smoker; the chemistries of mainstream and sidestream smokes are different.

Sidestream smoke is perceived to be annoying to non-smokers, especially when a cigarette is left lying as for example in an ashtray, and any reduction in it is desirable.

e The modification of mainstream smoke affects the perception of the article by the 0 •smoker.

Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of ooeo e the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a smoking article having a tobacco rod which comprises blend of shredded tobacco and shredded reconstituted tobacco sheet, the reconstituted tobacco sheet containing activated carbon particles, and a wrapper around the tobacco rod, the wrapper material having an inherent permeability of 20 CORESTA or greater.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words 'comprise', 'comprising', and the like are to be construed in an C 'claims, the words 'comprise', 'comprising', and the like are to be construed in an lainclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of "including, but not limited to".

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of producing a smoking article with reduced sidestream smoke and increased perceived mildness during smoking which includes using for the tobacco rod of the article shredded tobacco and shredded reconstituted tobacco sheet containing activated carbon particles, and as the wrapper of the smoking article a material having an inherent permeability of 20 CORESTA or greater.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a kit for hand-rolling a smoking article with reduced sidestream smoke and increased perceived oo• "mildness during smoking which includes for the tobacco rod of the article shredded 0 .o o o 0- tobacco and shredded reconstituted tobacco sheet containing activated carbon particles, S: and as the wrapper of the smoking article a material having an inherent permeability of 000. 20 CORESTA or greater.

The present invention uses activated carbon to modify the smoke of a smoking oo- a ooo article. Of course, activated carbon has been used in smoking articles, and for various purposes, virtually ever since its excellent adsorbent properties became known.

For example, the effects of various carbon contents of filters have been investigated by Williams et al in a report presented to the 5th General Assembly /I WO 99/38396 PCT/GB99/00260 2 of CORESTA, Vienna, October 1964 and reprinted in Beitrage zur Tabakforschung, Vol. 3 part 1, pages 233- 242. This showed varying adsorbence of different constituents of mainstream smoke by filter shreds of different make-up. However we are concerned with placing of carbon in the tobacco rod; that is, where it is subjected to conditions very different from those in a filter.

GB-A-1512352 shows the use of activated porous particles of carbon adhered to tobacco in the tobacco rod to affect mainstream smoke. GB-A-1348580 shows a sheet of reconstituted tobacco material containing activated carbon used as a main material for making cigarettes which gave a reduction in particulates and nicotine in mainstream smoke.

As far as we are aware at present the only disclosure of the use of carbon in a tobacco rod in a situation where reduction of sidestream smoke was aimed for is in US-A-5092353 (EP-A-378774). However the aim in that disclosure was to reduce sidestream smoke by the use of wrapping paper of very low permeability CORESTA units). To compensate for the tendency this will cause for the cigarette to be self-extinguishing, pyrolyzed alpha-cellulose was present in the tobacco WO 99/38396 PCT/G B99/00260 3 rod.

This pyrolyzed material was not subjected to any activating treatment. No mention is made of any chemical effect it might have on the smoke, and it probably has little or none because in the specific example the pyrolyzed material was cotton linters, which would give a comparatively low surface-area carbon.

The present invention, therefore, is contrasted with all of this prior art by providing in a tobacco rod an activated carbon for having an effect on the chemistry of smoke while not being limited to the use of low permeability papers, and specifically not to papers of 10 CORESTA.

Furthermore, the present invention provides the addition of activated carbon in specific particulate form in reconstituted tobacco sheet to the tobacco rod of the smoking article in such a way that greater mildness of the smoking article is perceived by the smoker in the mainstream smoke, and at the same time there is a reduction in sidestream smoke over a wide range of porosities of the wrapper of the article and in particular with porosities high enough that special precautions do not have to be taken to prevent self- WO 99/38396 PCT/GB99/00260 4 extinction of the article.

Furthermore, the activated carbon particle should preferably be of vegetable origin since they will then contain minute traces of metals, which assist in the firm adsorption of (particularly) aldehydes from the smoke and indeed may chelate with such compounds.

These are compounds the removal of which is particularly critical for improving mildness of perception of the article when smoked.

At the same time, however, the activated carbon does not diminish and may even increase certain beneficial volatile components of the smoke.

It is important to realise that as the "coal" of the smoking article progresses along the article, smoke components adsorbed by the particles are displaced from those particles minimally if at all.

They are destroyed to gaseous oxides together with the material of the carbon particle itself by the extremely high temperatures (reaching up to about 8000C) generated in the coal.

The reconstituted tobacco sheet containing the activated carbon particles may be made by conventional techniques for making such sheets, which in their turn resemble conventional paper-making techniques, the WO 99/38396 PCT/G B99/00260 sheet then being shredded for incorporation with shredded tobacco which will be the material of the tobacco rod.

An important application of the present invention however will be in "roll your own" tobacco blends, i.e. those which are sold loose and which are wrapped in cigarette papers by the smoker.

The invention therefore includes within its scope a blend of shredded tobacco and of reconstituted tobacco sheet with the latter containing activated carbon.

The handling of the sheet, whether in shredding or in later manipulation either in a machine or by the smoker, may cause loss of carbon particles and the reconstituted tobacco sheet may be coated or sized in order to assist retention of the particles in it, and in particular the particles may themselves be microencapsulated before incorporation. This latter has the advantage of increasing the size of the particles and therefore their retention mechanically and the uniformity of size but, perhaps surprisingly, does not affect their activity.

Example 1 Cigarettes were made from a mixture of US flue- WO 99/38396 PCT/GB99/00260 6 cured and Burley tobaccos, cut rolled stem and expanded tobaccos, processed and cut to 32 cuts per inch Incorporated in the shredded tobacco were of a reconstituted tobacco sheet equally cut and containing 30% of activated carbon particles from coconut, of mean particle size 37 pm and ranging in particle size from 0.5 Am to 150 Am. Control cigarettes were made identically but with the omission of the activated carbon particles.

The cigarettes were 84 mm long, 7.9 mm diameter, unfiltered. The wrapping was an 80 CORESTA flax-based paper, with 2% potassium citrate burn enhancer.

The cigarettes were subjected to smoking on a standard smoking machine and the mainstream smoke was analysed for vapour phase and semi-volatiles content with the results shown in Tables 1 and 2.

As seen in Table 1, there was a striking diminution, selective in character, of certain aldehydes and ketones and in particular of acrolein and butyraldehydes, the removal of which is important for mildness of taste. On the other hand, there was an actual increase as compared to the standard in certain ingredients, and in particular limonene, which are WO 99/38396 PCT/GB99/00260 7 regarded as beneficial to the taste.

A similar reduction though less selective is X seen in the semi-volatiles as shown in Table 2.

Example 2 Cigarettes and controls were prepared using the same tobacco blend and reconstituted tobacco sheet as in Example 1, but using respectively papers of 25, and 180 CORESTA units porosity. Sidestream smoke from the inventive cigarettes and from the controls had significant reductions both in semi-volatiles and in nicotine content, as seen in Table 3. Increased carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide production is assumed to be due to the presence of the particulate carbon in the tobacco sheet.

WO 99/38396 PCT/GB99/00260 8 VAPOUR PHASE ANALYSIS, RESULTS SUMMARY (Non-ISO 4387 conditions) Relative Peak Area Control Test Component J Mean RSD -1 Mean RSD Isoprene Limonene Benzene Tol uene Ethytbenzene m-+p-Xylene o-Xylene Styrene Acetaldehyde Propionaldehyde Acrolein n-Butyraldehyde iso-Butyraldehyde Crotonaldehyde 2-Furaldehyde Acetone Methylethylketone 3-Methyl-2-butanone Diacetyl 2-Pentanone 2,3-Pentanedione Cyclopentanone Furan 2-Methylfuran Acetonitrile Propionitrile n-Butyronltrile iso-Butyronitrile Methacrylonitrile Pyridine I -Methylpyrrole Methyldisulphlde Thiophene 30.8 2.3 16.9 26.7 4.1 6.0 1.4 1.5 9.4 2.6 3.5 0.48 1.3 2.6 1.5 110.2 29.5 1.6 55.1 0.27 3.3 2.2 5.7 3.9 6.3 12.9 2.5 2.5 1.1 0.79 1.3 1.4 0.62 0.19 3 33 5 9 18 19 21 28 4 7 4 5 4 9 37 4 5 7 5 6 9 18 3 4 6 6 7 8 7 4 43 12 8 6 30.6 2.6 16.5 27.3 4.5 6.7 1.6 1.7 9.3 2.5 3.2 0.44 1.2 1.8 99.0 26.8 50.2 0.25 3.2 2.2 5.4 3.9 6.4 12.6 2.5 2.5 1.1 0.80 1.5 1.5 0.56 0.19 Test as of Control 100 1114 97 102 108 112 112 112 98 97 114 101 99 101 98 98 102 96 102 115 107 98 Replicates 1 12 1 11I Highlighted values are statistically significantly different at a 95% confidence limit (Student-t Test, two-tall) WO 99/38396 PCT/GB99/00260 9 TABLE 2 SEMI VOLATILES ANALYSIS, RESULTS SUMMARY jgI/CIGARETTE Control Component Mean RSD Mean RSD Limonene 21.9 13 20.8 10 Naphthalene 2.0 3 1.9 I -Methylnaphthalene 1.1 3 1.1 5 2-Methylnaphthalene 1.6 6 1.6 4 Neophytadiene 127.2 7 108.8 3 Myosmlne 9.3 4 10.1 3 Pyrrole 11.3 6 9.6 6 2-Acetylpyrrole 3.9 5 3.6 4 Indole 9.8 3 9.0 4 2-Furaldehyde 51.1 5 41.8 2-Acetylfuran 8.6 9 7.2 4 2-Furanmethanol 43.4 7 37.2 7 5-Methyl-2-furfural 25.9 9 22.6 6 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furfural 118.7 3 105.4 4 ax-Angelicalactone 23.0 7 19.4 13 Phenol 79.5 4 71.9 4 o-Cresol 17.3 4 14.9 3 p-Cresol 27.5 4 24.6 4 m-Cresol 12.0 3 10.5 4 2,3,6-Trimethylphenol 0.6 15 0.5 6 Pyridine 13.0 14 13.2 7 Tniacetin n/d n/d TEGDA n/d n/d Propan-1 ,2-diol 126.6 69 85.3 43 Puffs/clg: 9.0 2 8.9 1 TPM (mglcig): 17.9 3 15.5 3 LReplicates 12 12 n/d not detected Detection limits: Tniacetin and TEGDA I gg/cigarette Highlighted values are statistically significantly different at a 95% confidence limit (Student-t Test, two-tall) Test as of Control 99% 99 I UZ 67 WO 99/38396 PCT/GB99/00260 TABLE 3 Sidestream measurements OASVWLr, 14ruJ1M lDlrznTTrvrrn

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2 isurs RZ aUP mci (m cig CORESTA CONTROL 30.1 7.00 -76.3 634 25.5 15.3 5.74 18.0 80.5 626 CORESTA CONTROL 32.5 6.55 -70.6 612 TEST 2 .4 12.6 6.07 7.3 76.1 6 2 CORESTA CONTROL 29.1 7.09 8 1.9 629 I_ TEST 27.5 5.5 6.21 t12.4 74.1 672 I g f VYDcaA Iit,rn,~ I l.J4I ''JL.

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Claims (15)

1. A smoking article having a tobacco rod which comprises blend of shredded tobacco and shredded reconstituted tobacco sheet, the reconstituted tobacco sheet containing activated carbon particles, and a wrapper around the tobacco rod, the wrapper material having an inherent permeability of 20 CORESTA or greater.

2. An article according to claim 1 in which the activated carbon particles are of vegetable origin.

3. An article according to claim 2 wherein the vegetable origin is coconut. :I o

4. An article according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the carbon particles have a mean particle size of about 27jm.

5. A method of producing a smoking article with reduced sidestream smoke and increased perceived mildness during smoking which includes using for the tobacco rod go of the article shredded tobacco and shredded reconstituted tobacco sheet containing ••go activated carbon particles, and as the wrapper of the smoking article a material having a inherent permeability of 20 CORESTA or greater. oooo

6. A method according to claim 5 including hand-rolling the smoking article.

7. A method according to claim 5 or claim 6 which involves preferential reduction in the aldehyde content of mainstream smoke.

8. A kit for hand-rolling a smoking article with reduced sidestream smoke and increased perceived mildness during smoking which includes for the tobacco rod of the article shredded tobacco and shredded reconstituted tobacco sheet containing activated carbon particles, and as the wrapper of the smoking article a material having an inherent S p. -lpermeability of 20 CORESTA or greater. 4 i4 -12-

9. A smoking article substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

A method of producing a smoking article with reduced sidestream smoke and increased perceived mildness during smoking, substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

11. A kit for hand-rolling a smoking article with reduced sidestream smoke and increased perceived mildness during smoking, substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying 10 drawings.

12. An article according to Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the wrapper has a permeability **9 of 25 CORESTA.

13. An article according to Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the wrapper has a permeability of 50 CORESTA.

14. An article according to Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the wrapper has a permeability of 80 CORESTA.

15. An article according to Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the wrapper has a permeability 000. of 80 CORESTA. An article according to Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the wrapper has a permeability of 180 CORESTA. DATED this 19th Day of March, 2001 BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (INVESTMENTS) LIMITED Attorney: CAROLINE M. BOMMER Fellow Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia Sof BALDWIN SHELSTON WATERS