Degradable smoking article

US5709227A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY · US

Inventors

• Barbara Walker Arzonico · Winston-Salem, US
• Michael Francis Dube · Winston-Salem, US
• Glenn E. Creamer · Lewisville, US
• Robert Leslie Oglesby · Kernersville, US
• Charles Ray Ashcraft · Victor, US
• Robin Kent Wilson · Clemmons, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 5, 1995
• Grant date: Jan 20, 1998
• Expiry date: Dec 5, 2015

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A24D3/10
• WIPO field: Other consumer goods
• WIPO sector: Other fields

Abstract

A degradable smoking article comprises a tobacco rod and a filter component made of a gathered web of moisture disintegrative sheet material wrapped with a moisture disintegrative plug wrap bonded along a longitudinal seam with a water soluble adhesive. A moisture disintegrative tipping paper coated on one side with a water soluble adhesive secures the tobacco, rod and filter component together. The combination of moisture and other natural elements such as sunlight, mechanical abrasion, etc., dissociates the components of the smoking article over a relatively short period of time. Other embodiments of the filter component include a hollow degradable tube and a monolithic extruded starch filter rod.