New Smoking Material

New Smoking Material was a £7 million product development project run by Imperial Tobacco and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) mainly in the 1970s intended to reduce the harmful content of cigarette smoke.[1][2][3] Research and commercialisation was done under a joint company New Smoking Materials Ltd (incorporated 1957, dissolved 2012).[4] The term, or its abbreviations N.S.M. or NSM, were also used for products used or intended to be used as a partial replacement for tobacco in cigarettes as a result of this or research by other companies.

The material was modified cellulose (which is a major constituent of tobacco).[2] Three companies produced rival products: in the USA Celanese, brand name Cytrel, in the UK ICI, brand name NSM, and Courtaulds brand name Tabrelle, but only Cytrel and NSM went to market,[5] in July 1977.[6] Four companies produced cigarettes mainly containing 25% new smoking material: Gallaher (which had one product with 40%), Rothmans International, W.D. & H.O. Wills, and John Player & Sons.[5]

The two products Cytrel and NSM were judged less harmful than tobacco and approved by a special government committee, the Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health,[7] which was formed in 1973 and as its first action produced guidelines for the testing of tobacco substitutes and additives.[8] However, there was a public outcry when it was revealed that the research involved animal experiments in which beagles were made to inhale tobacco smoke, or the substitute tobacco smoke, or a mixture of the two, at the equivalent of 30 cigarettes per day for several years.[3][9][10]

Sales of the new cigarettes peaked at about 4% of UK sales shortly after launch, but dropped to 0.6% six months later, far below the expectations of Imperial, which had constructed a £15 million factory to produce 15% of the UK market.[1]

Imperial finally closed the factory making NSM in 1981.[11]

References
  1. Wilkins, Christopher (8 February 1978). "Imperial's hopes for NSM go up in smoke". The Times. London. p. 17.
  2. Anonymous (2 June 1973). "New Smoking Material". The Lancet: 1226.
  3. Calder, Alan (18 May 2013). "NSM New Smoking Material". alancalderwriting.blogspot.com. Alan Calder. Retrieved 24 October 2022. From 1970, I spent six years on the NSM project in a variety of roles.
  4. "New Smoking Materials Ltd". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Companies House. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  5. Tisdall, Patricia (20 June 1977). "Substitute tobacco: who will be the winners when the smoke clears?". The Times. London. p. 19.
  6. New Smoking Materials Ltd (3 June 1977). "What every cigarette smoker should know about NSM". The Times. London. p. 3.
  7. Hodgkinson, Neville (1 April 1977). "Tobacco substitutes in cigarettes approved". The Times. London.
  8. "Report of the Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. The Stationery Office. 1998. Retrieved 24 October 2022. Annex A The Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health
  9. "Beagle smoking tests to go on". The Guardian. London. 12 December 1975. p. 23.
  10. "British Chemical Firm Defends Smoking Tests forced on Dogs". International Herald Tribune (European Edition). Paris. 3 April 1975.
  11. Griffiths, Gareth (29 November 1980). "Imperial Tobacco to stop making smoking substitute". Financial Times. London. p. 3.
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