I-T-- CIO RESEARCH DEPAIRTMEYT - ANNUAL REVIEW 1963 0 I . INTRODUCTION P. 1 2. EXPENDITURE P. I 3. RESEARCH PROGRAMME P. 2 4. PERSONNEL P. 16 cz. ACCOMMODATION P. 16 ATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 RES&A-RCH DEPART,'.IENT - Ar-;LTAL P=Erif 1261 19 I'N'TRODUCTIO17' Although we have included short sections on expenditure, accommodation and personnel, the most important section of the Review deals with the Research programme. Because it is the first of a series we have set down the main developments which have led to the present position of the programme under each of its general headings. This has resulted in a somewhat lengthy document but we felt it would be difficult to appreciate the present situation without paying some attention to the historical background. This will not be necessary we hope in subsequent reports. 2. Z=NDITURE Comparison of expenditure for the financial years ending October 1962 and 19t)3 are as follows.- Flavourina j962 1963 2 . E Capital 12 715 Revenue 135 (profit) 1,C)68 Capital items -were almost entirely connected with the changeover from duty paid to duty free alcohol. In recent years the objective has been to keep the revenue account in balance. The changeover to duty ~ree spirit in 1963 led to substantial reductions in prices charged to Branches. These prices were fixed on the basis of forward estimates of Branch requirements and actually resulted in some under recovery of overheads. We expect the current y6ar's account to be approximately in balance. Research 1962 1963 2 Capital 11,000 17,000 Revenue 236,000 255tOOO On Capital account the increase was mainly due to new instrumentation in the laboratories and to new plant for Upton Road. Major items were a spectrophotometer for the Filter Development Section L3,000 and the Hk. 2 Coating Hachine for R.T.L. Z3,000. The increase on Revenue account of Z19.*000 was mainly accounted for by wages and salaries (up Zj2j-000). Substantial sums spent by the Development Section on instruments and plant items will be reclaimed in due course from Brancl-es_and Overseas Buying Organisations. 4_~ CX:) BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 The net revenue cost of operating the R.T.L. plant fell from 278,000 to -060,000. This was due to higher Production and lower process losses. The revised arrangement with Customs for payment of drawback on production losses came into operation too late in the period to have any substantial effect on the figures but the plant is now operating at a profit. RESEARCH PROGRAMME Leaf Tobacco Research into the factors affecting the quality of leaf tobacco was intensified in 1952 at the time of Hr. Coulson's secondment to the Department and the Leaf Analysis and Biochemical Sections were established s1hortly afterwards. The aims have been, and continue to be - (a) to discover what leaf constituents contribute significantly to smoking and manufacturing quality, (b) to compile data on a systematic basis by grade for each year's purchases from each growing area - the annual Crop Survey, (0) to discover which of the subjective characteristics used by our buyers in judging grade are reliable guides to desirable smoking and manufacturing qualityt (d) to assist organisations in the growing areas who are engaged in research towards improving the quality of leaf offered for sale, and (e) to discover to what extent product quality can be altered by leaf handling processes and to secure the maximum possible improvement of quality at this stage. Taking each of these headings in turn - (a) Because of its subjective character smoking quality is an elusive conceptt not readily capable of being expressed in quantitative terms. We havep nevertheless, achieved a fair measure of success, with smoking panel techniques first suggested by Dr. Sharman and developed by Messrs. Paige and Jonesp in scoring cigarettes made from single grades or blends in terms of factors representing irritationp physiological satisfaction and flavour. Our experience has led us to conclude that by far the most important leaf tobacco parameters determining these smoking quality factors are the absolute levels of nicotine content and the sugar/ nicotine ratio. Nicotine content we believe influences satisfaction and possibly flavoure For any given nicotine level increasing sugar content Affects the irritant properties of the smoke in the direction of decreasing harshness. All our experience compels the conclusion that compared with these two important parameters, other leaf tobacco parameters such as petrol ether extract, fibre# protein# organic acids - even country of origin - have only marginal CD'\ 2. NJ BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 effects on smoking quality. We have made our views an this important topic known to the Cigarette Quality Committee. It is our intention during the next year to extend our knoviledge of the contributions made to smoking quality by parameters other than nicotine and sugar and to take the important step, in association with the Branches and the C.1o. Sectiong, of testing our theory about nicotine/sugar ratio on large scale panels of tipped cigarette smokers recruited from the general smoking public. Rate of burn of cigarettes is an important property that was highlighted by the early experience with Embassy. Following Mr. Horseman's theoretical treatment we have adopted a test procedure giving both static (smoulder only) and dynamic (smoulder and puffing) rates of burn. Cigarette makinf parameters have a great influence on burn (see later); our experience has shown that the leaf constituents affecting burn are the contents of potash and organic acids. The most important physical leaf quality characteristics that have attracted our attention are, of course# filling value and shatter resistance which, unfortunately, are invariably found to be inversely related, high filling value being obtained at the expense of resistance to. shatter. Both shatter and filling value depends on moisture content. Pilling value at constant relative humidity is affected primarily by moisture equilibrium and hence by the leaf constituents that we have found to determine hygroscopicity - sugar and other carbohydrates and pectin. In spite of a great deal of effort over the last few years we are still largely ignorant of the leaf characteristics that determine intrinsic filling value. For example it has not yet been possible to find any recognisable change in chemical ;omposition or structural features that account for the filling value changes that can be readily produced by various leaf and rag treatments. We intend to continue to work on this problem during the next twelve months because an understanding of the leaf characteristics responsible for filling value would be of-inestimable value in the rational investigation of filling value improvement. INhat we do now know from experience with successive crops from all the growing areaso and from samples from experimental crops of known history, is how filling value is related empirically to leaf stalk position and hence in broad terms to the Company grades. All other things being equal filling value is highest in the lug and tip grades and lowest In grades that come from the mid-stalk plant positions. It is also likely that some of the leaf characteristics that the buyer can reco Ise on the floors am a useful 2 guide to filling value.fnsee (e) below). our standard filling-value test correlates well with cigarette firmness but we are conscious of its limitations in dealing with small samples. We shall continue during the next twelve months to explore other methods. (b) Crop Surveys have been carried out on an annual basis since 1953 and have now become firmly established as an essential contributor to Branch planning not only with new introductions but also in day to day operations. The importance to Branches of the Crop Survey has 3- 13ATCo docurnent for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 increased as they have come to recognise the value of exercising control, in blend formulations, over objective quality characteristics such as nicotinet sugar and filling value. The Coker 139 episode marked the turning point in 1958 in Branch interest in the usefulness of Crop Surveys and we have been under pressure in more recent years to provide Branches with intelligence of crops of tobacco at progressively earlier stages in their history. In collaboration with the Leaf Department and the American Organisation, and at the special request of the Wills Branch., we arranged to have a chemical laboratory set up,in 1959 at Durham under Kr- Parris to provide nicotine and sugar data in purchases of U.S. and Canadian tobaccos as they were being processed for packing. Similar facilities were also provided at Msasa under Dr. Smith in 196C. Continued interest by all Branches in obtaining earlier crop intelligence led to the introduction for the first time in j963 of a pre-market Survey of green leaf in the four U.S. belts. Although this was regarded as no more than a pilot survey we think that it proved its worth in predictings correctly# the greatly increased nicotine levels in belts.north of Georgia consequent on the introduction of Coker 319. Branch Leaf Managers were., we understand., more than satisfied that the information available was a useful guide to buying strategy. The question of Crop Survey came under review during the visit to the Department of Messrs. Coulson and Winfield last Autumn. Over the years we have deliberately reduced the number of analyses carried out on each Crop Survey. sample in order to be able to concentrate on those leaf parameters thought to contribute significantly to 'quality'; our Crop Survey measurements are confined at Present to total nitrogen, nicotine, sugar, ash (with sand, ash alkalinity and the main cations and anions) E*M.C.p filling value, shatter, lamina yield and leaf thickness and weight. Although we believe that these parameters determine 'qualityt to a very large degree we are nevertheless conscious that we ought not to overlook monitoring our purchases for other possibly important factorst if only to have up-to-date intelligence of changes in the character of crops that might otherwise go undetected. Purther, now that the major quality factors are known and taken care of by the Crop Surve we think that we should concentrate on aspect and (e) of the problem as a means of improving quality in the future and improving the ability of our buyers to recognise it. Accordingly we have proposed# and this has been agreed by Branches.and Leaf Departmentt that we should aim to transfer the responsibility for collection of Crop Survey data for U.S.A. and Canada to the Durham Laboratory in 1965 and for Rhodesia and Nyasaland to the Msasa Laboratory in 1966. Both of the overseas laboratories are already equipped to do nicotine and sugar analysis. The critical factor in.handing over total responsibility for Crop Survey is the ability to standardise filling value measurement in the first place between Bristol and Durham. This is one of our main objectives during 1964. I CN 4. 13ATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 (C) Under the system by which tobacco is now bought and sold subjective judgment forms the only basis upon which the buyer can form an opinion as to 'quality'. We therefore believe it to be one of our most important outstanding problems to discover to what extent subjective characteristics can be relied upon as a guide to smoking and manufacturing quality. At the suggestion of Dr. Smith we commenced work in 1961 on trying to find out how nicotine content and filling value might be related to a number of leaf characteristics in a series of type samples of Rhodesian tobacco selected and scored by him on numerical scales for body, grain, colour types colour finish and disease blemish. It was encouraging to find that high filling value appeared to be associated with grain and with disease blemish - a finding that was put to practical use in separating for analysis the higher filling value sides of certain grades from the sides that were less desirable so far as filling value was concerned, Body appeared to be a useful guide to nicotine contents colour was only useful to the extent that the mahogany types had higher nicotines there being no difference between lemon and orange types when other factors were h1eld constant. Colour finish seemed to be of no value for judging either filling value or nicotine content. We have completed similar type sample exercises on the 1962 Rhodesian crop, the 1961 and 1962 U.S. and Canadian crops and the 1962 Indian crops and haves unfortunatelys found that the clear cut correlations that we were so gratified to have discovered in the first Rhodesian experiments have not been confirmed as applying generally. Thuss in Rhodesia 1962 filling value correlated only with disease blemish and not with grain. In both U.S. crops to date filling value has correlated with grain but nicotine has correlated with colour and not at all with body as it did in both the Rhodesian series. Our findings on the Canadian 1961 series agreed well with those for Rhodesia of the same year with filling value related to -grain and nicotine to body, but there were no discernible correlations at all in the 1962 Canadian samples. For India 1962 tobacco nicotine and not filling value went wi~h grain; nicotine also went with colour finish and not colour type or body. All this illustrates the formidable difficulties attendant upon the subjective judgment of leaf. Leaf does of course vary from area to area and from year to year and we ought not perhaps to expect that the correlations we have found to apply in some instances would necessarily apply generally. Nevertheless, we believe that a major complicating factor is the admitted difficulty of reaching any sort of uniformity in subjective assessment between different teams of buyers in the different buying organisations and even between different individuals in the same team. Both the Leaf Department and ourselves believe that investigation of type samples should be intensified, not only to help towards improving standards of subjective judgment (with its implications for buyer training) but also as an aid to finding types of tobacco of potential value to us from the quality standpoint that we have not previously bought. We plan to deploy in this field a major part of those resources of our Leaf Analysis Section that will be liberated in due course BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 by the transfer overseas of the Crop Survey work. It is further planned to take advantage of the presence in U.S.A. together next season of Messrs. dinfield and Campbell and Dr. Smith to make a serious attempt to correlate Rhodesian and U.S. Organisation subjective assessment standards in scoring the 1964 type samples from these two areas and Canada. (d) Collaboration with overseas interests on research into improving leaf quality at source has been an important continuing part of our work on leaf tobacco. We have worked with Government Departments of Agriculture, University Departments, Research Boards and commercial seed prodacers in U.S.A., Canadap Rhodesia, Nyasaland and India. Our main effort in collaborative work with U*S. agencies during the period under review has undoubtedly been on new varieties and maleic hydrazide. 'lie have worked on new varieties for many years with the Land Grant Colleges and Cokers Pedigreed Seed Company, and can, we think, rightly claim some of the credit for the present more favourable trend in new introductions. Coker 139 was undoubtedly the ~ost serious instance of a new variety, high yielding and therefore attractive to growers, but with thoroughly undesirable physical and chemical characteristics. Following the proscription of Coker 139 a series of new varieties were offered to U.S. growers including Coker 316 which was not only attractive to the growers but also evidently acceptable to buyers as judged by appearance on the floors. In many trials from experiment station and farm-grown crops Coker 316 was ranked at least as -high as Hicks by leaf- assesso7rs from the participating companies. We did, howeve r r a s is by no--.v we 11 known, f ind tha t the new va ri e ty was uniformly inferior to Hicks judged by objective physical and chemical quality criteria, a view that was amply confirmed in Crop Surveys by the decline in nicotine and filling value of our U.S. purchases during this period. With maleic hydrazide-treated tobacco the issue was never in doubt; this tobacco was always objectionable on both subjective and objective assessment. 'Me do not think that it is an overstatement to say that the views that we were able to voice on both these issues# based on research done here and supported by Mr. Coulson, have helped in fair measure towards the replacement of Coker 316 in U.S.A. by the more acceptable Coker 319 and towards arresting the spread of maleic hydrazide to,.Canada and Rhodesia. Other work with U.S. agencies has includLad many bulk curing experiments in N. Carolina and Florida and agronomic experiments at N.C. State College. In Canada we have engaged in collaborative experiments on maleic hydrazidep variety trials and agronomic experiments with the Delhi Experimental Station and with I,T.Co. (Canada). We have also spent a lot of time on Canadian Cigarette Burley tobaccos which we believe to be extremely useful tobaccos; added at the 15% level to a flue-cured blend they give the blend improved filling value, Q^J 6. BATCo document for Legal Services: Health Canada 22 October 1999 reduced 'tar'/nicotine ratio and a lower 'irritation' factor rating or, subjective assessment. Collaborative trials in Rhodesia and Nyasaland have covered variety trials (especially comparison of X51 and Hicks which showed no advantage to the former)t irrigation experiments, maleic hydrazide (in which the effects on quality found in U.S. and Canadian tobaccos were confirmed), investigation of chloride and sulphate levels in relation to 'slate' and 'linoleum smell't and study of quality in fire-cured wrapper grades. We regard collaborative experiments as being very important from the standpoint of protecting and improving leaf quality as it is affected by factors operating at the growing and curing stages and we have a full programme of such experiments in hand for the current year. The basic work at Raleigh Road on tobacco growing and curing also falls into this general section. In our view nothing like enough attention is given by organisations in the growing areas to research on curing considering the overriding importance of curing in developing the 'quality' potential of the green leaf. We are able to grow leaf at Raleigh Road, either in the greenhouse or in the Growth Roomp and then to cure it' to a saleable product. Our aim is to use leaf from plants, grown under simulated Rhodesian conditions to investigate the interaction of curing conditions and green leaf composition in producing a cured product with optimum sugar/nicotine ratio without regard to colour. This is long range work from which we do not expect to see quick results. (e) Leaf handling and rag treatment processes can affect quality to a significant degree which it is desirable to be able to optimise. 'Ile are studying the effects of threshing, redrying, natural and accelerated agingt packing and rag wetting, drying and cooling on various aspects of quality, notably on filling value, aroma and smoking quality. It is necessary in all such investigations first to bring the process under controlp a feature which has not in the past characterised much of our leaf and rag processing. A major effort has been put into improvements in threshing and redrying operations overseas, and as an aid to threshingp into the green storage problem. Significant prototype improvements in threshing line details have been made by Mr. Lewis in the U.S. plants and embodied in.the Msasa equipment. The designing and progressing of the Msasa installation has made big demands on the time of Messrs. Lewis and.Davis and the Drawing Office during the last two years. These demands should contract once the Msasa plant is successfully commissioned. The methods and equipment now being-used in the control of threshing quality (the lamina particle size and stem-in-lamina tests) were mainly devised by the Development Section. A fundamental study is proposed on the same _z:-_ principles which might be used to produce-novel 01N threshers of improved performance. 7- BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 When we started our investigations, control of redrying plant was rudimentary and the problem was highlighted when the performance of strips driers came under suspicion of contributing to the lower filling value of 'Wills Branch threshed work. The need to modify these Proctors for hard-drying with adequate throughput led to application of earlier theoretical work by Mr. Lewis of heat and moisture transfer and to studies of air flow characteristics which have enabled him to improve, the controllability of the ordering end of strips drying machines by means of metered liquid water sprays-and to raise the drying capacity by improved air circulation. These modifications have performed well in U.S. plants but have so far not been so successfull at Msasa where further work on them is to be done this year. We arey howeverp conscious that the moderate improvements in redrier performance that we have been able to achieve are seriously limited by the restrictions imposed by having to work with the Proctor machine. A complete redesign though using the same basic principle could we think lead to some further improvement particularly to cleanliness and convenience but any Sig improvement will need a change of principle. Such a change may not be practical so long as we wish to dry hard. I Mr. Parris at Durham is collecting data on redrying variables with a view to computer control of driers. Brown & Williamson have a pneumatic drier giving good results in Lexington but it is not suitable for hard drying. Attention is being given to green storage as an aid to spreading the peak load on threshing and redrying facilities. We devised a process which gives satisfactory bulk green storage of bundled leaf for over three months,if 25% of loose leal. can be tolerated, and though we have not demonstrated a satisfactory method of breaking down the bulks we have successfully recovered some 200,000 lbs. An alternative method devised by Durham of storing green prized hogsheads is more convenient and at least as cheap and will give safe storage for at least four weeks which is long enough to meet the immediate need. We do notr thereforep propose any further development work on bulk green storage for the time being. The past year has brought home to us the need to think in terms of carrying out much of our process development work overseas. During the 1963 season three of our Development Engineers, in addition to Mr. Lewist were at some time or another working on projects in U.S.A. and we expect - indeed we shall encourage - this trend to continue as more of our ideas progress from the experimental stage to the stage at which they have to be tried out on full-scale plant. It had always been claimed that leaf 'improved' on aging and we set out to see if this could be detected by objective assessment. A systematic study by the Leaf knalysis and Development Sections has shown that filling value could be improved by around 10% by accelerated aging of leaf6C?trips or rag at 14-1.55% moisture for 3 days at 65 , the aroma of the unsmoked tobacco is improvedr the tobacco darkens in colour and C:: 8. BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 there is some reduction in sugar content and E.K.C. Without noticeable effect on smoking quality. A . greater increase in filling value, up to about 20,`b, can be obtained more rapidly and conveniently by wetting rag tobacco with liquid water or steam to around 55% moisture and subsequently drying back to 17% moisture; this process is accompanied by a small reduction in rate of burn but not by any colour change, aroma improvement or alteration in E.H.C. or smoking quality. Moisture and heat are added to and removed from tobacco at several stages between purchase of the leaf and sale of the finished cigarette and application of these two processes to leaf tobacco and rag respectively could produce economically useful gains in filling value. These increases in filling value are relative to fresh redried leaf. Less is probably available in a partly matured blend and less again in manufactured rag as we do not yet know how far these processes are additive. The following are the main lines on which work has been and is being done:- W Investigation of the conditions under which the Filling Power Improvement process involving the rapid application of high temperature and R.H. can be applied to rag on the factory scale. A large factory trial on rag dryer ODtimisation is in hand with the Wills Branch, with smaller trials at the Player and C.L. & "R. Branches. Close liaison has been maintained with the B.A.T. who are ahead of us in the commercial application of what was essentially fir. Lewis's discovery. I.T.Co. of Canada in particular are doing good work on optimising existing types of drier. Investigation of the effects of packing temperature on filling value and colour. We strongly suspect that filling value increases with the length of time that packed tobacco remains above ambient temperature and we now know that the tobacco from the inside of a hogshead has higher filling value than the tobacco from the outside layers. This worky which we shall continue next year in U.S.A. and Msasa has an important bearing on vacuum processing practice and on the proposed change from packing in hogsheads to packing in cases. (iii) Investigation of the extent to which the effects on filling value of accelerated aging of leaf and of water addition to rag are additive. If they are additive, accelerated aging could-be a valuable adjunct to green storage overseas* If not, attention should be concentrated on rag .-treatment -which involves no lots of dry weight. This topic also has high priority for the current yeart in collaboration with the Wills Branch. We have been unsuccessful so far in attempts to devise objective means of measuring the effect of leaf and rag treatments on unsmoked tobacco aroma Cnose I). The Player Branch in particular attach great importance 9. CYN BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 to 'nose' and would like to be able to bring their drying and co cling processes under control in terms of their effects on this aspect of quality* Our Biochemical Section has'expended a great deal of effort in trying to detect qualitative or quantitative changes in leaf constituents matching the organoleptically unmistakable changes in Inoset that follow stoving but we have had to conclude that analytical techniques are not yet sufficiently refined to replace the olfactory sense as a judge of 'nose'; we therefore have no immediate plans for any further work on the problem* Although 'nose' might undoubtedly play an important part in quality in its own right, we do not know of any evidence that it has an important bearing on smoking quality. Two observations support this view. The first, already referred top is that leaf subjected to natural or accelerated aging which has.greatly improved-'no8e', has unaltered smoking quality as Judged by our panel evaluation. The second is our experience with the Player Branch No. 10 stem treatment process, now abandoned; in the course of work on this process carried out some years ago, we found that treated stem which certainly had improved tnose' did not improve the smoking quality of blends in which it was incorporated. The economic importance of leaf moisture at import involves us in a great deal of routine testing and standardisation work. The steady improvement in factory increases over recent years is due at least in part to a real reduction of average import moisture. There ist however, obviously a limit to these savings and we might well be very close to that limit. Interest in the rapid moisture testing methods continues and this subject is kept under continual review. cigarettes We are concerned with four areas of research on cigarettes - (a) measurement and monitoring of important physical characteristics, (b) smoke analysis in relation to smoking quality. (c) filtration. (d) smoking and health. Taking these in turn (a) The aim has been to develop instruments, suitable for routine application in factory quality control schemes, for measuring a number of physical attributes of finished cigarettes* Undoubtedly the most successful of these developments has been the firmness profile integrator of which 68 have been made and are now in use# 35 in our own factories and 33 in B*A&T. organisationp where its use has provided the basis for the exploitation of the F.P*I. process. Our ends 10. BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 tester is also in use by B.A.T. Other developments Include an ends stability tester, an automatic weight sorter for research purposes, and an Instrument for the automatic measurement of draw resistance of cigarettes or filter rods which is about to go into series production. Further development of the latter toprovide for segregation into groups with different draw resistance is planned-for the next year. Air flow through cigarette rods and burning temperatures are under investigation by the Physics Sections The :eaf Analysis Section has investigated the cigarette parameters that affect rate of burn. Other things being equal the most important of these is paper porosity but width of cut and circumference also have a significant influence* For monitoring purposes Leaf Analysis, Control and Statistical Sections continue to produce a comprehensive Cigarette Survey for the information of Head Office Departments and Branches. (b) Automatic smoking machines are the prerequisite for work on cigarette smoke. The Sharman/Iles constant volume autosmoker was the first really successful and convenient device to be built for this Purpose and is still in use for certain analytical work. It is, however, less well suited than other devices for other aspects of our work, notably production of smoke condensate in bulk for which purpose an improved rotary autosmoker was designed and constructed by Mr. Harris. This has proved to be a highly successful general purpose autosmoker and some 45 machines built to our design are now in use in various parts of the world. Because of the demands made by smoking and health we have never been able to give to the problem of relating smoking quality to smoke analysis anything like the attention that its importance merits. Our proposals for work on this topic, which were agreed by the Cigarette quality Committee in September lasts are broadly as follows;- (I) An attempt using U&S. and Rhodesian Type Samples to discover to what extent smoke# nicotine# 'tar' and vapour phase yield correlate with leaf -characteristics that could be recognised by the buyers. (ii) Isolation from cigarette smoke neutral fraction and vapour phase of substances with desirable organoleptic properties followed by preference testing of cigarettes fortified by the addition of such substances either to the tobacco or to a filter*' The recent decision to make health research the first charge on our resources will almost inevitably set back this programme but we shall endeavour to make some headway on both items during the next year. 01N 11. co BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 W Your Committee is familiar with the background to the formation in this Department a year ago of a Filter Development Sectionp and the appointment of Dr* Westcott as Section Head* Recruitment of additional staff for the Section is in hand and the Section should be established in its new laboratories early in April. Porce of circumstances has led to the terms of reference originally agreed for the Section (pursuit of the tobacco/mimetic tip) being altered and first priority is now to be given to filter research in the health context* The Section has made the following progress during the year in which it has been housed temporarily with the Smoke Analysis Section - Ci) A scheme for monitoring other manufacturers' cigarette filters in the U.K. market has been set up with special reference to plasticiser content and phenol-reducing additives for which analytical methods had to be worked out. Although we accept that this is essential pending any firm understanding on tip evaluation between U.K. manufacturerst it is our fervent wish that the manpower deployed on monitoring should be diverted to more profitable areas of study. (ii) Methods for estimation of oxides of nitrogen in cigarette smoke are being examined prior to work on the selective removal of these substances by filtration. The analytical problem is proving to be very difficult but it must continue to receive our attention. (iii) An apparatus for sampling cigarette smoke particulate phase and vapour phase separately and on single puffs sequentially has been designed and constructed. For the future we shall continue work on filtration of oxides of nitrogenp start an intensive examination of the filtration properties of different charcoals# and commence work on altering nicotine/tar' ratio by filtration* We are reluctant to give up basic work on the mechanism of filtration and shall try to return to this as soon as recruitment allows us to do so. (d) From its inception our Smoke Analysis Section has been almost exclusively engaged upon work in the health fieldp broadly as follows:- (1) Smoke fractionation schemes and the supply of fractions for bioassay in aid first of-all collaborative work by independent investigators and in aid later of Harrogate. In its simplest terms this work was designed to discover what constituents contributed significantly to the carcinogenicity of cigarette smoke condensate and it is not an overstatement to say that all the knowledge currently available from Harrogate and from other work in which T.R,,C. has been engagedj, which has enabled us at a. most opportune time to decide on practical and realistic steps towards safer smoking,, has depended exclusively 12. \~o BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 on the efforts in this Department first of Mr. Burgan and then of Dr. Chesterfield and ~heir colleagues* 'ractionation scheme currently of The L greatest interest, and on which we have made good progress, is one designed to give a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon fraction as free as possible from other contaminants and isolated with minimum loss of hydrocarbons* With the recruitment of Dr. Whitehead by T.R.C. this scheme will now be taken over by Harrogate for further refinement prior to bioassay, Detection and estimation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in smoke condensate, study of their mode of origin and discovery of means for reducing their concentrations selectively. 'Ile covered all these stages successfully with benzopyrene several years ago. For the future our aim, in association with other T.R.C. members# is first to find a means for estimating total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons if this is possible and then to discover means whereby the concentrations of this class of compounds as a whole can be reduced in smoke at source by treatment of the tobacco# with the proviso that cigarettes made from tobacco so treated should be an acceptable smoking product. *Ne do not underestimate the difficulty of achieving this objective. (iii) We took the initiative in getting T.R.Co members to agree to adopting standard smoking regimes and standard methods for measuring 'tar' yield, Although this task appears superficially straightforward, it has in fact proved to be a most difficult exercise. We are not yet altogether out of the wood on standardisation of 'tar' within the Company, but are reasonably well placed for the work on alteration of nicotine/ttar' ratio that we now plan to do. For several years we made 'tar' and nicotine measurements on Crop Survey grades as a service to Branches. (iv) Participation in joint programmes of chemical analysis arranged by the Smoke Study Group of T*R.C. We have contributed methods for nicotine and vapour phase estimation to the pool and have determined the maximum concentration of aliphatic nitrosamines in smoke condensate, Work on these lines continues, (v) Isolation from -smoke, or synthesis, of nicotine transformation products and other bases of potential interest in regard to the pharmaco- C=) logical effects of smoking. These compounds are being used by Dro Armitage at Harrogate and by Dr. Rand. 13. BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 Our main line of work on'smoking and health during the next year$ in addition to the hydrocarbon analysis project mentioned above# will be to discover how far we can go towards Producing a cigarette with greatly increased niCotine/Itar' ratio and acceptable smoking quality. The background to this proposal was given in our recent commentary on the S*G.A.C. Report; there are many different ideas to be exploreedp which will be followed up in association with Branches through the S.H.R.C. and with the B..&.T. Pi'De Tobacco Our main effort in research on pipe tobacco has, until comparat.ively recentlyp been on preservatives and flavours. It is generally agreed that the development of R-D-3. and its adoption in manufacture by Branches has been an unqualified success. Many of the natural materials traditionally used for flavours are becoming difficult to get and# when available, are increasingly subject to adulterationp quite apart from the difficulties that arise from crop variations, luctuations and poor keeping quality. Proprietary price fl mixtures are even more objectionable as they have the added drawback that we have no control over the quality of ingredients used or the substitutions which are made to replace scarce materials. Our general approach to flavouring is therefore based on the conviction that, in the long term all our tobacco flavours should be compounded from pure chemicals. The change will of necessity be a slow process, as it involves matching complex mixtures of unknown composition. Chromatography is.. however, proving a powerful weapon in this work and progress has been made; some of the natural ingredients formerly used in main Company flavours have already been replaced by synthetic mixtures. All flavourings compounded at Winterstoke Road are now made with denatured duty-free spirit. The saving in duty for the year ended 31st October 1963 amounted to about P.70,000 and should rise to some ZIOO,000 when all Branches have made the change. The health aspects of flavours has caused us a great deal of concern. As your Committee knows we felt it necessary some years ago to recommend withdrawal of methyl, anthranilate and restriction of the use of coumarin in Company flavours; our work on the distribution of added coumarin during smoking enabled us to recommend an acceptable level for the concentration of this substance in accordance with recognised toxixological principles. Vie are in close touch with the B.A.T. on this problem on which we have much common ground. The pipe tobacco Branches have become interested recently in sugar/nicotine ratio and rate of burn of pipe tobacco grades and.blends. We have been asked to supply Branches with a good degl of information on pipe grade nicotines and sugars on an ad hoc basis and next year, for the first timep and at the request of the pipe tobacco Branches, we have arranged for these data to be collected systematically for all pipe grades as an extension of the Crop survey. The work on rate of burn of pipe tobaccos is at an early stage but is showing promise and will be continued during the next year in collaboration with the pipe tobacco Branches. BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 Cigars We have not done any work on the 'quality' of cigar leaf since the end of operations by Darvel in Borneo. The main concern at that time was with duration of burn in wrapper and binder leaf and we discovered some useful correlations between this parameter and leaf constituents. Because of the growth in the cigar trade and the potential importance of cigar and other fermented tobaccos from the health angle, it is likely that our interest in these tobaccos will increase in the future; they w~ll certainly have to be taken into account in our current health research programme. cigar painting process has been developed, using all tobacco materials, which combines adequate masking power With freedom from undesirable derkening of the painted surface when moistened, the essential novelty of the process being to use tobacco leaf wax extracted from exhausted British Nicotine Company offal to provide a hydrophobic coating. The cigar Branches found the experimental products attractive and the next stage of development is to apply the process on a ,oroduction scale as soon as the Tacimas machine is available. hhe wax coating process involves difficulties with H.M. Customs and a simpler alternative would be to use a tobacco/water slurry only. i~s soon as production runs are available from the Tacimas machine the cigar Branches will have to decide if the improved appearance of the wax-coated product justifies the extra cost and the trouble of negotiating with H.M.Customs. Tobacco Sheet The Upton Road sheet process was developed from a principle first devised by Dr. Ferguson in our Biochemical laboratory. The process is working steadily and# as a result of an important cop-cession by H.M. Customst is now for the first time showing a profit at present selling price. With demand from the cigar Branches at current levels emphasis has been and will continue to be on production. A second coating machine, constructed largely in the Departmental workshopq was started up about a year ago and sales of sheet have steadily increased during the year from 700 - I p 200 lbs. per week. The problems associated with shift-working are being investigated. Further development on sheet production particularly moisture control is required and we shall also expect to work on (i) addition of R.D.B. to sheet to control mould growth during storage, I . (ii) development and testing of production runs-of cigarette sheet in collaboration with the cigarette Branches; there are problems still to be solved in blending sheet with cigarette rags, and (iii) modification and working up of the Regota machine. Modified sheet is a n ?tentially useful material for achieving altered nicoti C~ tar' ratios and this project is included in our health research programme. 011-1 BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 4. PERSONNEL The comparative strength of the Department at 1/1/63 and 1/1/64 was .126Z j964 Graduate Staff 39 41 Non-graduate staff - male 28 37 it It it - female 84 92 Workpeople 35 38 Total 186 208 Of our present graduates 6 qualified while in our employt two in 1963, and one assistant is at present attending a Sandwich course. The overall increase of 22 is mainly in the non-graduate staff grade. Additional male assistants have joined the Development Section as they are more suitable than girls for the extensive programme of factory trials that are in pr , oject. There are still a number of vacancies in all crades which we are trying to fill. These include the six graduates for the accelerated programme for filter development. The response to advertising has been disappointing and we are increasing our efforts to get newly qualified graduates via the University Appointments Boards. Every encouragement will be given to suitable candidates to qualify by means of Sandwich courses. 5* ACCOMMODATION When the new building is commissioned the two laboratory floors will be occupied by Smoke Analysis and Filter Development respectively and the ground floor will be used as a machinery hall. Re-allocation of accommodation in the old building will give improved facilities mainly for Biochemistry and flavour work. We are however experiencing trouble over amenity accommodation and this is likely to get worset The staff canteens for senior and junior staff are full up for both lunchtime sittings and Wills are finding great difficulty in providing room for the increasing numbers of junior staffv almost exclusively girist who wish to bring sandwiches. The present room is on the top floor of No. 4a Factory and there have been complaints to the Staff Council (a) because of the distance the girls have to walk, particularly in bad weather, and (b) overcrowding. 16. BATCo document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999 P Wills are doing what they can in a difficult situation but we really require a room of our own which could be used both as a sandwich and recreation room. We had hoped that the proposed rebuilding of canteen accommodation in the Raleigh Road area would provide improved amenities and were disappointed when the scheme was shelved. 0 Research Dei3artment. 27th February 19b ECF/JRS. L~ 17. _C:~b I BATCo, document for Legal Services : Health Canada 22 October 1999