Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. 7 
predicted nicotine intake and cotinine levels. But nicotine intake was 
calculated by Rosa and colleagues as the multiple of cigarettes per day times 
FTC yield. The strength of the relationship between this hybrid parameter ! 
and FTC yield derives primarily from the cigarettes-per-day term rather than 
from the FTC-yield term. 
Figure 5 presents data by Gori and Lynch (1985) based on a population I 
of more than 800 smokers recruited at shopping malls. These were not ' 
smokers who were trying to stop smoking. Plasma cotinine and nicotine j 
concentrations were measured. The average cotinine concentration was j 
about 300 ng/mL. Again, there was only a shallow slope in the relationship | 
between FTC nicotine and cotinine level, with little difference in cotinine 
level comparing the lowest and the highest FTC nicotine yields. I 
Figure 5 
Mean plasma nicotine and cotinine concentrations as a fraction of FTC nicotine 
yield of cigarettes smoked: n = 865 
FTC Nicotine (mg/cigarette) 
Key: solid line = mean; broken line = 95-percent confidence intervals. 
Source: Gori and Lynch, 1985. 
Plasma Nicotine (ng/mL) 
