The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: As roll your own cigarettes market is increasing in France because of a low prize (Median prize : 0.13 €/gram of tobacco compared to 0.31 € /gram for an industrial cigarette, i.e. 2.4 times cheaper). In France the sail has increased in the last15 years period from 1.5% to 12% of the total cigarettes market. Until 2005 no information was provided by tobacco companies on the product. Now an ISO standard as been adopted to roll your own cigarettes. Then the roll your own cigarette smoke is analyzed according to the ISO 3308 standard. Smoke compound is analyzed with 400 mg or 750 mg tobacco per cigarette and according to 2 cigarette papers (A and B).

Methods: We have bought in November 2005 the ten more popular brands of roll your own cigarettes sailed in France an we have assessed advertising on tobacco smoke compounds.

Results: For 750 mg roll your own cigarettes, all the brands were above the European limit value of 10 mg of tar emission per cigarette. According to the paper, the results were 12 to 14 mg tar per cigarette for paper A and 16 to 18 mg tar for paper B. So the tobacco companies sail tobacco for roll your own cigarette, which, if used following the recommendation of the company, is not allowed to be used according European regulation on cigarettes.