Smoking molecular basis

In 1959, unable to explain the bioassay (mouse skin-painting) results with CSC on the basis of either its B[a]P content (less than 2% explainable) or its total PAH content (less than 3% explainable), Wynder and Hoffmann (4307) at the 1959 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting added the concept of promotion by low molecular weight phenols to the concept of tumor initiation by PAHs in an attempt (unsuccessful) to explain the bioassay results. They reiterated their view the following year at the 1960 AACR conference (4309) The phenol fraction could be established as an important promoting portion of the tobacco smoke condensate. ... 

Other water-soluble tobacco smoke components categorized as ciliastats on the basis of in vitro test results include ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, acrolein, acetone, nitrogen dioxide, and low molecular weight phenols. The phenols are distributed between the particulate and vapor phases of tobacco smoke. 

The coupling of the findings reported by Boutwell et al. (414) on the promoting effects of low molecular weight phenols on PAHs in the mouse skin-painting bioassay with the failure to explain the tumorigenicity of CSC on the basis of its PAH content subsequently triggered extensive research both within and outside of the tobacco industry on several aspects of the phenols in tobacco smoke. 

---