A comprehensive evaluation of the toxicology of monogram inks added to experimental cigarettes

AbstractContext: Cigarettes often have a small identifying mark (monogram) printed either on the cigarette paper toward the filter end of the cigarette or on the tipping paper.Objective: A battery of tests was used to compare the toxicology of mainstream smoke from experimental cigarettes manufactured with different monogram inks. Cigarettes with different concentrations of different pigments were compared with cigarettes without ink, and with a control ink.Materials and methods: Smoke from each of the experimental cigarettes was evaluated using analytical chemistry and in vitro bacterial mutagenicity (Salmonella, five strains, ±S9) and cytotoxicity (neutral red uptake) assays.Results: No differences were observed between experimental cigarettes printed with three different pigment loads of iron oxide-based Black pigment and non-printed cigarettes. In general, no dose response was observed. However, increases in certain smoke constituents were found to correlate with Pigment Yellow 14 (also known as benzi...