Total particulate matter in cigarette and bidi smoke.

It has been well established that smoking causes lung cancer and many other chest diseases. To study the harmful effects of smoking, an automatic smoking machine was developed in this laboratory. Cigarette smoke contains many known carcinogens. The amounts of various carcinogens are proportional to the total particulate matter. Hence variation in total particulate matter (TPM) of different brands of cigarettes, bidis and cheruts (Indian cigars) was studied for various smoking parameters. An attempt has been made to arrive at some intake values of TPM from cigarettes and bidis smoked by the automatic smoking machine under different simulated smoking conditions.