Abstract
The length of the butts left by the smokers was ascertained from approx. 40000 cigarette butts gathered in 1968 in the whole of the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin. In comparison with an examination made in 1959 it could be seen that the length of the butts is increasing. Thus the length of the butts of filter cigarettes increased by 8.5 mm (from 22.1 to 30.6 mm) and the length of the butts of cigarettes without filter by 6.3 mm (from 19.3 to 25.6 mm)