and designs is on the rise. Various technical-technological measures have been made to reduce the amount of harmful matters in cigarette smoke. The most recent but insufficiently investigated approach of reduction of smoke yield is filtration of smoke particles through the acetate filters. Investigations were made on the effect of pressure drop of the filter rod and cigarette and the rate of free combustion on the content of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide in test cigarettes. Cigarettes were produced on the industrial cigarette maker, and then tested on the Smoking Machine RM 20/CSR according to ISO 3308. The content of tar was measured according to ISO 4387, and the pressure drop of the filter rod and cigarette was measured according to BDS 11353.The results have shown that both types of filters used, influence the smoke yield and the amount of harmful matters in smoke. Reducing denier per filament increases smoke removal efficiency. Filter type X (denier 3.0Y35 000) effectively filters the smoke so that the nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide contents are lower than the contents obtained by the filer Y (denier 2.7Y35 000).

Key word: cigarette, filter rod, pressure drop, physical characteristics of cigarettes, nicotine,

smoke