U.S. patent number 3,782,393 [Application Number 05/277,335] was granted by the patent office on 1974-01-01 for method of making a cigarette of reduced biological damage capability.
This patent grant is currently assigned to American Safety Equipment Corporation. Invention is credited to Irving Michelson.
United States Patent |
3,782,393 |
Michelson |
January 1, 1974 |
METHOD OF MAKING A CIGARETTE OF REDUCED BIOLOGICAL DAMAGE
CAPABILITY
Abstract
This invention relates to a method for making a cigarette which
has the same smoking properties as an ordinary cigarette but
reduces components contained in the smoke of such a cigarette which
cause cancer on the skin of mice. The method includes adding to the
cigarette paper calcium sulfamate in an amount of from 0.1% to
1.0%, by weight, based on the combined weight of the tobacco and
cigarette paper. Ammonia is added to the tobacco in an amount of
from 0.015% to 0.15%, by weight, based on the combined weight of
the cigarette paper and tobacco and the tobacco containing ammonia
is wrapped with the cigarette paper containing the sulfamate salt.
The preferred amount of calcium sulfamate in the paper, by weight,
is from 0.2% to 0.8% and the preferred amount of ammonia in the
tobacco is from 0.03% to 0.12%, by weight.
Inventors: |
Michelson; Irving (New
Rochelle, NY) |
Assignee: |
American Safety Equipment
Corporation (New York, NY)
|
Family
ID: |
23060415 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/277,335 |
Filed: |
August 2, 1972 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
131/334 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A24D
1/02 (20130101); A24B 15/243 (20130101); A24B
15/287 (20130101); A24B 15/28 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A24B
15/28 (20060101); A24D 1/00 (20060101); A24B
15/00 (20060101); A24D 1/02 (20060101); A24b
015/02 (); A24d 001/02 () |
Field of
Search: |
;131/2,9,15,17,140 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Rein; Melvin D.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: C. A. Miketta et al.
Claims
I claim:
1. A method for producing a cigarette which, when smoldered
produces a smoke which has a lesser amount of components which
cause tumors on the skin of mice which comprises uniformly
distributing throughout the paper from about 0.1% to 1.0%, by
weight, of calcium sulfamate and uniformly distributing throughout
the tobacco of the cigarette from about 0.015% to 0.15%, by weight,
of ammonia and wrapping the thus obtained paper around the tobacco
to produce a cigarette.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the amount of calcium
sulfamate in the paper, by weight, is from 0.2% to 0.8% and the
amount of ammonia in tobacco is from 0.03% to 0.12%, by weight.
3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the ammonia is uniformly
distributed throughout the tobacco by contacting said tobacco with
a solution of ammonium hydroxide.
4. A method according to claim 3 where the solution containing
ammonium hydroxide is an aqueous solution.
5. A method according to claim 3 wherein the ammonium hydroxide is
in an alcoholic medium.
6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the calcium sulfamate is
added to the paper by contacting said paper with a solution
containing calcium sulfamate.
7. A method according to claim 6 wherein the solution containing
calcium sulfamate is an aqueous solution.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, the concern for the health of tobacco smokers,
particularly cigarette smokers, has increased. The reason for this
concern is because of the evidence gathered by scientists around
the world that smoking definitely endangers the health of the
smoker to a greater or lesser extent, depending upon the amount of
the smoke, the extent to which it is inhaled, and the person's
susceptibility to being injured by tobacco smoke. For example, it
is definitely established that cigarette smokers are more apt to
develop lung cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, and suffer other
biological damage than non-smokers. Figures from Smoking and
Health, report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General,
indicate that heavy smokers are 15 to 25 times more susceptible to
the risk of lung cancer than that of non-smokers and that light
smokers' changes of developing lung cancer is five to 10 times that
of non-smokers. In addition, the mortality of smokers because of
bronchitis and emphysema is five to eight times that of
non-smokers.
Because of the foregoing and other evidence that smoking is
detrimental to the health and well-being of people of all ages, the
Federal government of the United States has required all cigarette
manufacturers to place on cigarette packages the warning that "The
Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous
To Your Health." In spite of this warning, the consumption of
cigarettes and other tobacco has actually decreased very little
from the prior years. It is thus very apparent that people who are
addicted to cigarette smoking are very unlikely to quit merely
because they run the risk of having their health seriously
impaired.
It is thus a desideratum in the art to produce a tobacco
composition, the smoke of which has a reduced amount of components
which are apt to cause biological damage to the smoker. It is
therefore not surprising that in the past decade the prior art has
endeavored to produce a safe tobacco, particularly safe cigarettes.
For the most part, the prior art attempts have centered around the
idea of filtering out or screening the tars produced during the
smoking of the tobacco. However, this has not been entirely
satisfactory because inter alia it appears that the materials
produced in the smoking of the cigarette which cause biological
damage can not be filtered out selectively and therefore the
filtered smoke still contains substantially the same proportions of
deleterious material as the unfiltered smoke.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides cigarette meeting the above
desideratum in that the cigarettes produced by the method of the
present invention produce a smoke which contains fewer components
which cause cancer on the skin of mice than a corresponding
untreated cigarette. This surprising result is obtained by the
present invention by adding a critical amount of calcium sulfamate
to cigarette paper and adding a critical amount of ammonia to the
tobacco.
Thus, it can be seen, that the principal object of the present
invention is to disclose and provide a method for making a
cigarette composed of cured tobacco wrapped in paper, the smoke of
said cigarette having a significantly reduced amount of components
which cause tumors on the skin of mice.
Another object of the present invention is to disclose and provide
a method for treating cigarette paper with calcium sulfamate and
treating the tobacco thereof with ammonia.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a novel
method for producing novel cigarettes by applying an aqueous
solution of calcium sulfamate to the paper of such cigarette by
contacting the paper with a solution containing calcium sulfamate
and spraying ammonium hydroxide on the tobacco and wrapping the
tobacco containing ammonia with the calcium sulfamate treated
cigarette paper.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The foregoing objects, and others, are accomplished by the present
invention by the addition of from 0.1% to 1.0% of calcium
sulfamate, calculated as Ca(SO.sub.3 NH.sub.2).sub.2, to the
cigarette paper and the addition of ammonia to the tobacco in an
amount of from 0.015% to 0.15%, by weight. The preferred range of
calcium sulfamate added to the paper is from 0.2% to 0.8% and the
preferred range of ammonia added to the tobacco is from 0.03% to
0.12%, all percentages being by weight, based on the combined
weight of the tobacco and cigarette paper.
The ammonia can be added to the tobacco in any convenient manner;
however, it is preferred to add the ammonia to the tobacco
(preferably cut or shredded tobacco) by spraying a solution of
ammonium hydroxide on the tobacco while the tobacco is being rolled
and tumbled in order to insure that the ammonia is distributed
substantially uniformly throughout the tobacco. Thereafter, if
necessary, the tobacco can be dried to remove the solvent (e.g.
water) for the ammonia. However, inasmuch as tobacco utilized for
cigarettes contains a certain amount of moisture it may not be
necessary to dry the tobacco after the addition of ammonia
thereto.
It is even more preferred if the ammonia is added during the time
when other additives such as humectants, sweetners and flavoring
agents are being added to the tobacco. These additives are added to
the tobacco by so-called casing solutions. For example, in general,
there are at least two casing solutions which are added separately
to the tobacco. Humectants such as glycerine are added to the
tobacco by dissolving the humectant in water and then spraying the
resulting solution on the tobacco. Sweeteners are also added in the
same manner in that the sweetener is dissolved in an aqueous medium
and the resulting solution sprayed on the tobacco. These two types
of additives are usually applied as one solution. Inasmuch as
ammonium hydroxide is water soluble it is preferred if the ammonium
hydroxide is added to the above-identified aqueous casing solution.
However, it is also possible that ammonia can be added when the
flavoring agents are added to the tobacco. Generally speaking, the
flavoring agents such as peppermint oil are applied in an alcohol
medium.
The calcium sulfamate is conveniently added to the paper via an
aqueous solution inasmuch as calcium sulfamate is soluble in water.
Thus, it becomes convenient, to add the calcium sulfamate in an
aqueous solution which will contain other normal cigaratte paper
additives by passing a roll of commercial cigarette paper through
the aqueous solution of calcium sulfamate and squeezing the excess
solution out by pressure rollers. Normally, utilizing this method,
70 percent of the calcium sulfamate solution will be retained on
the paper. Therefore in order to prepare a cigarette paper
containing 0.2 percent, by weight, of calcium sulfamate (calculated
on the weight of the paper and tobacco) the cigarette paper is
passed through an aqueous solution containing 6.34 pounds of
calcium sulfamate made up to 12 gallons by the addition of water.
In order to prepare a cigarette containing 0.8 percent calcium
sulfamate it is merely necessary to pass the cigarette paper
through an aqueous solution containing 25.35 pounds made up to 12
gallons by the addition of water.
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present invention
two different groups of cigarettes were made containing varying
amounts of calcium sulfamate and ammonia. The first group contained
0.06 percent ammonia in the tobacco and 0.38 percent calcium
sulfamate on the paper. The second group contained about 0.09
percent of ammonia in the tobacco and 0.58 percent of calcium
sulfamate on the paper. Another group of cigarettes was designated
as the control group and contained the same standard blend of
cigarette tobacco and the same batch of cigarette paper as was
utilized on the test cigarettes. The untreated cigarettes provide a
control against which to compare the treated cigarettes, in order
to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment.
The cigarettes from all three groups are smoked in a manifold-type
smoking machine, one 2-second puff per minute, with the suction
pressure equal to that which delivered 17.5 ml./sec. of smoke in
sample cigarettes of the respective groups. The smoke is condensed
in two liter collection flasks immersed in dry ice-methanol
mixture. The condensate is removed from the flasks with acetone.
The acetone suspension is concentrated in a flash evaporator until
all of the acetone is driven off. The remaining "crude tar" is
treated with an equal volume of acetone and then eight volumes of
heptane are added slowly with vigorous shaking to provide a
two-phase system. The upper phase is concentrated in a flash
evaporator until all of the heptane is apparently driven off. It
has been shown that this fraction of the tar contains all of the
carcinogenic activity that is found in crude cigarette tar.
The various tars collected as exemplified above were diluted such
that equivalent weights of crude tar were present in the
appropriate test solution for each group of cigarettes used. Female
ICR Swiss mice at 60-70 days of age were used in the test for tumor
activity. The mice were divided into two groups, 100 in each group.
The mice in each group were shaved and then painted two times
daily, 5 days a week, for 44 weeks with the solution of tar
obtained as indicate supra. About once a month the tar was replaced
by a fresh batch which was obtained in exactly the same manner as
the original tar. After a period of 44 weeks it was determined tha
the smoke of the Group I treated cigarettes produced 50 percent
fewer tumors on the skin of mice than the control group had and the
Group II cigarettes produced 40 percent fewer tumors than the
control group. At the end of the sixtieth week the Group I
cigarettes produced 30 percent fewer tumors than the smoke of the
untreated cigarettes and the Group II cigarettes produced 27
percent fewer tumors than the smoke of the untreated
cigarettes.
In the foregoing embodiment the ammonia was applied to the tobacco
by spraying a 58 percent ammonium hydroxide solution onto the
tobacco; however, the ammonium can be added to the tobacco in any
convenient manner and the invention is not limited to spraying an
aqueous solution of ammonium hydroxide thereon. Similarly, the
calcium sulfamate can be added to the cigarette paper in any
convenient manner and not necessarily by an aqueous solution
thereof.
* * * * *