Chapter 12 
some media exposure about the results of some of these studies. He said, 
"I have a 1-mg tar cigarette, and yes, I block the vents on that cigarette, and 
yes, it makes it taste better and it is easier to light, but 1 thought it was a 
1-mg tar cigarette; it says so right on the pack." 
Ventilation is not the only manufacturing technique that contributes to 
an ultralow-yield cigarette. There can be other differences that mean that, 
even with blocking, the smoker will not necessarily get the same really high 
levels that you might with some other cigarettes. But it is clear that it is a 
major factor; it is clear that smokers can subvert it completely or even 
partially. 
Lombardo did a study years ago with people staining their fingers with 
printer's ink. And he found that, as the cigarette coal burns down, and your 
fingers are getting away from it, they start to get in the way of the vent holes, 
It is also interesting that those last few puffs are the richest, and if you were 
to block those holes, that would be a particularly good time to do that to get 
higher yields. 
DR. TOWNSEND: Dr. Kozlowski, how did you measure the vent blockage? 
DR. KOZLOWSKI: We have done it a few ways. Most of the time it is a stain 
pattern method. 
DR. TOWNSEND: On the mouth end of the filter? 
DR. KOZLOWSKI: Yes. 
DR. TOWNSEND: What I do not understand about something you just said 
is that people will purposefully tape holes closed. I think my experience with 
consumers is that they clearly know the tradeoffs between tar delivery of a 
cigarette and taste characteristics. 
It would really surprise me that consumers would make that purposeful 
change to the design of a cigarette and not understand that they are 
increasing tar. Besides, they have the choice to go out into the market and 
buy a higher tar product if that is what they choose; so I do not understand 
the rationale or the psychology here. 
DR. KOZLOWSKI: I think it is something to be surprised about. 
DR. TOWNSEND: About the compensation issue, there is another answer 
that I do not completely understand. 
Let's assume that compensation occurs to a very large degree, and people 
get essentially the same deliveries from a low-tar cigarette that they get from 
a higher tar cigarette. Then, why do consumers complain to us that the taste 
of low-tar cigarettes is weaker, milder, less strong, and less acceptable? 
Again, their perception is that tar and taste go together. As a smoker, 
I can fairly accurately estimate the tar yield of a cigarette by smoking it, and 
I can get within a couple of milligrams. 
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