Are all cigarettes equal? - Correspondence

Ezzati and Kamen (1) correctly add an increment to the estimated personal exposure of smokers in their Kenyan cohort to account for the mass of particulate matter (PM) that is inhaled directly from the mainstream smoke (2). However, the authors added only 1,000 [micro]g/[m.sup.3] to the smoker's personal total PM exposure. Kenyan smokers can choose between smoking Kiraiku (home processed, hand-rolled tobacco) and commercial filtered and nonfiltered cigarettes (3). I expect that smoking of Kiraiku and nonfiltered commercial cigarettes may well deliver much more than 17 mg of tar per cigarette (4). Thus, if the authors' cigarette-smoking subjects actually smoked even one such cigarette per day, they would have an increment to their personal exposure that would be much larger than 1 mg/[m.sup.3].

David T. Mage
Institute for Survey Research
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
E-mail: davidm@temss2.isr.temple.edu

REFERENCES AND NOTES

(1.) Ezzati M, Kammen DM. Quantifying the effects of exposure to indoor air pollution from biomass combustion on acute respiratory infections in developing countries. Environ Health Perspect 109:481-488 (2001).

(2.) Mage DT. A procedure for use in estimating human exposure to particulate matter of ambient origin. J Air Waste Manage Assoc 51(1):3-6 (2001).

(3.) Macigo FG, Mwanik DL, Guthua SW, Njeru EK. Influence of cigarette filters on the risk of developing oral leukoplakia in a Kenyan population. Oral Dis 7(2):101-105 (2001)

(4.) Awotedu AA, Higgenbottam TW, Onadeko BO. Tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields of some Nigerian cigarettes. J Epidemiol Community Health 37(3):218-220 (1983).

COPYRIGHT 2001 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
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