Regulation of tobacco smoke intake with paced cigarette presentation.

Smoking behavior in response to an increased presentation of cigarettes was investigated to determine whether compensatory changes occurred in order to maintain a constant intake of tobacco smoke. The lighting of each cigarette was paced at both twice and four times that of subjects' baseline smoking rates in a three condition repeated measures design for eight smokers. Puff topography--number of puffs per cigarette, puff duration, volume, peak flow and interpuff interval--was monitored continuously. Results showed that subjects titrated smoke intake, as summarized by three smoke compensation indices based on number of puffs, puff volume and puff duration. Compensation was virtually complete in the double rate condition, and substantial in the quadruple rate condition. Results of this experiment do not support the view of a bimodal distribution of smokers, "compensators" and "noncompensators," since a continuous range of compensation ratios was obtained. The measures of individual puff topography were only modestly correlated, and were generally highest for volume x duration. Volume would appear to be the most accurate measure of tobacco product consumed.