Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. 7 
UTILITY OF Although it has been clear that humans do not smoke like machines, 
THE FTC TEST it is also clear that changes in the FTC smoking conditions do not 
METHOD alter the relative ranking of cigarettes. The FTC conditions include 
a 35-cc puff of 2 seconds duration, taken once per minute. If the puffing 
conditions are changed, the relative ranking or yields of the cigarettes are 
preserved. 
For example. Figure 3 shows tar yield as a function of puff volume. 
In this chapter, puff volumes of 35 cc, 45 cc, and 55 cc were chosen for 
comparison of four cigarette products, one each from the lowest tar, 
ultralight, full-flavor light, full-flavor categories. The 35-cc puff is the 
FTC condition and is not intended to represent the lowest smoker puff 
volume; the other two conditions were arbitrarily chosen. As the puff 
volume increases, tar yield of the product in each category increases. 
However, the ranking of the categories is preserved. For example, the 
tar yield of an ultralow-tar product at a 55-cc puff volume is lower than 
the tar yield of a low-tar product at the same puff volume. 
Changing the puff frequency from one puff per minute to one puff every 
45 seconds or one puff every 30 seconds also increases the tar yield in each 
category, yet the ranking of the cigarettes is intact (Figure 4). Puff duration 
has little, if any, effect on the actual yields (Figure 5). 
Figure 3 
Effect of puff volume on observed tar yields 
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Note The puff duration for this experiment was 2 seconds; the puff frequency was one every 60 seconds. 
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