The effects of ventilation and the dilution of smoke upon the clastogenic and aneugenic activity of tobacco particulate matter in cultured mammalian cells.

We demonstrate here that tobacco particulate matter (TPM) produced from both non-ventilated and ventilated cigarettes of varying tar contents induced structural and numerical aberrations in cultured Chinese hamster cells. Our data indicate that TPM from ventilated cigarettes is of lower potency in inducing both clastogenic and aneugenic effects compared with TPM from non-ventilated cigarettes. These observations provide support for the concept that the genotoxic activity (to cultured Chinese hamster cells) of cigarette smoke is reduced by increased ventilation to a greater extent than a 1:1 ratio between yield reduction and smoke dilution.