In May 1999, the CORESTA Scientific Commission set up the CORESTA CO Sub-Committee within the Routine Analytical Chemistry Sub-Group “to address the issue of different CO results obtained with rotary and linear smoking machines. The Sub-Committee should make recommendations on how to resolve the issue.”

Along with the CORESTA-work the carbon monoxide standard ISO 8454 was up for revision and at the same time the "European Directive on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products" introduced the declaration of carbon monoxide yields from 1 January 2004 which led to a need for introduction of tolerances for carbon monoxide values in the sampling standard (ISO 8243). The present CORESTA study contributes with analytical results to facilitate the evaluation of the necessary tolerances for carbon monoxide.