Tobacco Documents Online

Tc 1,abjw &-t,, Nsv THE CHE1!I/C1ST61( OF TOBACCO AND TOBACCO SMOKE Proceedings of'the Symposium on the Chemical Composition of Tobacco and Tobacco Smoke held duning the 162nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C.. September 12-17; 1971 Edited by Irwrirr Schmeltz Eastern Marketinp,and Nutritson Research m,visson U. S. Department of llgpculture Philadelphia, Pennsylirania ...L PLENUM PRESS - NEW YORK-LONDON • 1972

RECENT TRENDS IN TOBACCD AND TOBACCO SMOKE RESEARCH Hclmut Wakeham Phil'ip l.brris Research Center Ri'chmond, Yirqiinia The excuse for a research: director to review before his sci~entifi!c peers recent progress in the fiel'd' of his own program does not come often. It is an opportunity not toibe missed. In many ways it is more challengiing than presenting the program to management who foots the bill. It has the advantage of putting one's own program into better perspective. Any research group tends to become so engrossed in its own work that it' overlooks peripheral areas of work -- we see the trees and forget to look at the forest. Frankly, I am not sure my associates have appreciated my involvement in t'his symposiium. In the course of'my preparation thave suggested some gaps in our own program.whlch they should be exploring. In this review Ji shall refraiin from tiicking, off new, compounds recently found in tobacco or smoke,or listing new techniqpes'im analysis and pyrolysis. I shall,also not review,all the chemical studies being carried out in connection with agriicultuvalland curing investigatiions on tobacco. I propose rather to view broadly the field of tobacco and smoke chemistry as it pertains to the reall life smoking situation. What chemistry i's taking place as the smoker puffs away on his smoking product? In laboratories we often db simplified experiments under arbitrary and artificial conditions because it is easier to do things that way. We forget' that these conditions may be quite unlike those experienced~by human smokers, each of' whom ils enjoyingi his pipe or cigaret in different ways from his fellow smokers., C'hemists have been intrigued by the complexity of tobacco and tobacco smoke from the turn of this century. Their interest t f