Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. 7 
QUESTION-AND-ANSWER SESSION 
DR. HARRIS: I was curious about the very last statement on the tape: The 
results are sent to the cigarette manufacturers who, in turn, report the 
numbers to the Federal Trade Commission? 
MR. PILLSBURY: Yes. We get the tar and nicotine data directly from the 
cigarette manufacturers so that we can hold them responsible if there is 
anything wrong with the numbers. 
DR. HARRIS: To your knowledge, do the numbers reported under the 
compulsory process by the manufacturers ever deviate from those that are 
measured in the Tobacco Institute laboratory? 
MR. PILLSBURY: The only thing I can tell you is that they are checked. 
DR. STITZER: Could you remind us how the original Cambridge Filter 
method was altered when the FTC method was developed? 
MR. PILLSBURY: The original smoking machine was a four-port smoker that 
used a column of water to draw from the cigarettes. When this new machine 
came out, the filter pads and the holders were pretty much the same. The 
only thing that has been changed is that the machine has been modified so 
that carbon monoxide can be analyzed at the same time that the cigarettes 
are being smoked. 
DR. STITZER: So, there wasn't a puffing protocol that went along with the 
original method? 
MR. PEELER: We published, at the time that we adopted the method, a fairly 
detailed protocol for how the test was supposed to be done. I suppose the 
question is, did that protocol that we published differ from the original 
method in the parameters that were required? 
MR. PILLSBURY: No. They were pretty much the same as in the original 
method. 
DR. RICKERT: How much of a difference would you have to have in tar yields 
between two brands before they would be considered to be different in the 
statistical sense? 
MR. PEELER: We publish the numbers and try to have a large enough sample 
so that there are differences in those numbers. But the question of whether 
there is a significant difference in those numbers is what we need to know 
from you. 
DR. RICKERT: What I am referring to is that on the tables in the UK there 
is a footnote that reads, "Ignore differences in 2 mg in tar and CO," and I was 
wondering whether that is the same sort of position that we have here? 
MR. PILLSBURY: Fhe only thing that is done is they are rounded. Five and 
above are rounded up; four and down are rounded down. We make no 
criteria as to whether one with 14 mg is better for you than one with 15 mg. 
We are just publishing the ratings of the cigarettes as they fall. 
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