Abstract
The author investigated the effect upon the length of cigarette butts left by the smokers, brought about by the increase in tobacco tax of the first of September, 1972, in the Federal Republic of Germany. From the year 1959 to the month of August of 1972, the lengths of the butts of filter cigarettes have been found to continuously increase from 22.1 mm to 33.8 mm. This trend has been interrupted by price augmentations by about 20 % resulting from the said tax increase. On the average, since September 1972, the length of the butts of filter cigarettes has decreased by 0.6 mm and the length of the butts of plain cigarettes slightly by 0.2 mm