Capstan is a British brand of unfiltered cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Imperial Brands. The brand dwindled in popularity when the health effects of tobacco became more widely known; few shops sell them today.

History[edit]

Capstan was originally launched by W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1894, and was one of the most popular brands of cigarettes in the early-twentieth century.^[1] W.D. & H.O. Wills spent £4,000 (equivalent to £477,509.50 in 2018) on promoting the Capstan cigarettes in 1900, and these amounts were in addition to regular charges for advertising, including showcards and newspaper advertisements.^[2] It was W.D. & H.O. Wills' answer to Player's Medium cigarettes.^[3] In 1973, the UK Government published a table of the tar and nicotine contents of cigarettes available in the UK market, and Capstan Full Strength contained, by a margin of 0.21 mg/cigarette, the highest nicotine content (3.39 mg/cigarette) of any brand, and the second-highest tar content.^[4][5] However, since 2004 cigarettes sold in the UK have had a cap of 10 mg of tar and 1 mg of nicotine per cigarette.

Various advertising posters were made for Capstan cigarettes, including one to encourage female workers in factories during World War II to smoke Capstan to relax at the end of a working day. One of the most well-known slogans at the time was 'Time for a Capstan'.^[6][7][8] Another popular slogan after the end of WWII was 'Have a Capstan'.^[9][10] A few celebrities advertised this brand, such as English actress Evelyn Laye and British Hollywood star David Niven.^[11]

The song 'Saturday's Kids' from The Jam's 1979 album Setting Sons features the lyric 'Their mums and dads smoke Capstan non-filters/Wallpaper lives 'cause they all die of cancer'.

Markets[edit]

Capstan is mainly sold in the United Kingdom, but also was or still is sold in Germany, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Chile.^[12][13][14]

Cigarette cards[edit]

Capstan was one of the tobacco companies to include advertising cards in their packs of cigarettes. Some of the collections featured were the cricket series featuring notable players (1907)^[15] and the Australian rules football collections that includes depictions of club flags and colors in 1908 and 1913.^[16]

References[edit]

1. ^'Stubbed out: the 21 most iconic cigarette packets of all time'.
2. ^Alford, B. W. E. (5 November 2013). 'W.D. & H.O. Wills and the development of the UK tobacco Industry: 1786-1965'. Routledge – via Google Books.
3. ^'Vintage cigarette packets'. www.retrowow.co.uk.
4. ^Russell, MA (1976). 'Low-tar medium-nicotine cigarettes: a new approach to safer smoking'. Br Med J. 1: 1430–3. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.6023.1430. PMC1640397. PMID953530.
5. ^'Timeline: Smoking and disease'. 30 June 2007 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
6. ^Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. 'Advertisement for Capstan cigarettes'. teara.govt.nz.
7. ^'Real cigarettes in the Regal - Going To The Pictures'. goingtothepictures.org.uk.
8. ^'AP1588K - Never Go Without A Capstan, Cigarettes (30x40cm Art Print)'. www.retrocards.co.uk.
9. ^'Amazon.com: TOBACCO ADVERT. Capstan Cigarettes - 1951 - old print - antique print - vintage print - Fashion art prints: Posters & Prints'. www.amazon.com.
10. ^'Cigarette & Tobacco adverts'. Pinterest.
11. ^'Capstan – The Ardross-man'. ardrossman.wordpress.com.
12. ^'BrandCapstan - Cigarettes Pedia'. www.cigarettespedia.com.
13. ^'Capstan'. www.zigsam.at.
14. ^'Brands'. www.cigarety.by.
15. ^Cricket trade cards on Sportspages.com
16. ^Austrlian Rules Footy Cards 1931 to 1940

External links[edit]

• Imperial Brands, manufacturer

Editor—To try to reduce the harm caused by cigarette smoking, the European Commission established maximal values for tar (10 mg), nicotine (1 mg), and carbon monoxide (CO; 10 mg) per cigarette, as measured by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) method, from 1 January 2004.¹ The easiest way to reduce yields is by increasing filter ventilation, but this allows smokers easily to control the dose of smoke they can obtain, usually to facilitate increased intake from lower yield cigarettes.^,3 We compared yields and design features of 10 cigarette brands sold in the United Kingdom before and after the EC standard was implemented.

Researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute performed analyses in September-October 2005. The 1999 brand versions had been stored unopened at room temperature since purchase; current versions were purchased in September 2005.

Full details of methods and data are available on the web (www.roswelltturc.org/research3_3.htm). Filter ventilation was assessed using a KC-3 digital apparatus (Borgwaldt-KC, Richmond, VA, USA) following a published protocol. ISO tar, nicotine, and CO yields were obtained from packs (1999 CO values are from LGC⁵). Wilcoxon tests assessed average changes across brands.

The table shows yields and filter ventilation for each brand. Originally rated at 11-13 mg tar (median 12 mg), all brands dropped to 10 mg tar (17% drop, P < 0.002), while reducing nicotine from a median of 1.0 mg to 0.9 mg (P < 0.008). The ratio of tar to nicotine did not change (P > 0.45). Carbon monoxide yields also dropped significantly, from a median of 13 mg to 10 mg (P < 0.01). Median ventilation increased by 479% (P < 0.006) from 1999 to 2005. None of the other design features measured showed consistent changes.

Table 1

Changes in ISO yields and ventilation for selected “full flavour” brands, United Kingdom, 1999-2005

ISO=International Organization for Standardization.

CO=carbon monoxide.

NA=CO yields were not available in LGC report.⁵

Our findings indicate that manufacturers complied with the EC's recent mandated yield reduction primarily by increasing filter ventilation rates on cigarettes—a design feature that promotes compensatory smoking. The current “10-1-10” standard is therefore unlikely to reduce smoke exposure for smokers.³ The EC, while recognising the compensation problem, has said that it will not revise the standard until solid evidence shows that better methods exist.¹

Our data suggest that removing erroneous yields from packs and adopting alternative approaches to reducing the harmfulness of cigarettes, such as banning filter vents, seems warranted. However well intentioned the EC's effort to make cigarettes less harmful, focusing solely on the use of maximum yields has served to promote increased levels of filter ventilation, which is both ineffective and misleading.

Notes

Contributors: Susan Anderson provided the cigarettes for testing. Tammy Vance performed the cigarette measurements.

Funding: This work was performed under a Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center grant to Roswell Park Cancer Institute from the US National Institutes of Health (1 P50 CA111236).

Competing interests: KMC and LTK have provided expert testimony in court cases against the tobacco industry. KMC received travel expenses for speaking at a tobacco litigation seminar. RJO, AM, and GAG have no competing interests to declare. Pokemon glazed rom emuparadise.

References