The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Physical and chemical properties of tobacco smoke provide important sensory stimulation to smokers in addition to nicotine delivery. Although the impact of sensory perception on tobacco dependence has recently gained momentum in the published literature, little is known about how cigarette manufacturers study sensory stimulation and use internal research to enhance the sensory experience for smokers. This study presents an overview of the role of sensory perception in the smoking experience as described internally by the tobacco industry. Specifically, we examined differences in sensory perception across smoker groups and determined whether these differences informed targeted product development. The contributing effects of sensory perception to smoking behavior could enhance our overall understanding of tobacco dependence.

Methods: We searched previously secret internal tobacco industry documents available online through document databases housed at Tobacco Documents Online, the British American Tobacco Document Archive, and the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library. We used a snowball sampling method to first search the databases using an initial set of key words and to then establish further search terms. The initial search resulted in approximately 200 documents.

Results: Cigarette manufactures have studied the role of sensory stimulation on product satisfaction and smoking behavior identifying sensory differences among smoker groups. Further, sensory research has informed targeted product development used in today's tobacco products. An in-depth analysis of the tobacco industry's sensory research should be used by independent scientists and public health professionals to better understand consumer smoking behavior, product choice, tobacco dependence, and treatment.