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Article #194: Are There Safe Cigarettes?

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Tobacco was initially used by wrote that, "in attempting to develop a
pre-Columbian Native Americans, who "safe" cigarette you are, by implication,
smoked it in pipes and even used it for in danger of being interpreted as
hallucinogenic purposes in shamanic accepting the current product is unsafe,
rituals. Christopher Columbus was given and this is not a position that I think
tobacco by natives and introduced it we should take."
Europe when he returned from North However much tobacco executives attempted
America. to hide the dangers of their product from
However, tobacco did not become widely the public, increasing market demand
used in Europe until the middle of the eventually forced all cigarette companies
16th century, when explorers and to develop some filter systems for their
diplomats such as France's Jean Nicot cigarettes. Filtered cigarettes accounted
(for whom nicotine was named) popularized for only 1 percent of cigarette purchases
its use. in 1950, but this had soared to 87
Tobacco was introduced to France in 1556, percent by 1975.
Portugal in 1558, Spain in 1559, and However, the development of filtered
England in 1565. cigarettes met two hurdles, one medical
Initially, tobacco was produced for pipe and the other a matter of personal taste.
smoking, chewing and snuff. Cigarettes Because smokers are nicotine addicts,
were made in a crude, hand-rolled form they will smoke until their craving for
since the early 1600s, but did not become nicotine is satisfied. A filter which
popular in America until after the civil removes nicotine will simply prompt them
war. Cigarette sales surged with to inhale more deeply or smoke more
introduction of the cigarette rolling cigarettes. A filter which removes the
machine by James Bonsack in 1883, in a tar components of tobacco will remove the
contest sponsored by tobacco company taste and smoking sensation to which
Allen and Ginter, who promised $75,000 to smokers have become accustomed, and
the first person to invent a fast consumers find such a product lacking in
cigarette-rolling machine. This "flavor". Due to compensatory behavior by
facilitated industrialized production and smokers, the amount of toxins consumed is
widespread distribution of cigarettes. not significantly less than from an
Since then, nicotine addiction has become unfiltered cigarette, and there is no
a public-health concern in virtually proof filtered cigarettes are less of
every nation on Earth. health risk.
Warnings about the health risks of Still, tobacco companies persist in their
smoking were muted until the 1950's and efforts to develop better filters. Often
1960's, when a series of unsuccessful they are hampered not by lack of
lawsuits forced the issue into the public technical knowledge but by consumer
eye. Not until the 1990's would a lawsuit behavior. In 1975, Brown and Williamson
be won by the plaintiff. However, the introduced a new cigarette called Fact,
American Surgeon General first demanded with a new filter designed to selectively
that warning labels be placed on remove toxic compounds such a cyanide.
cigarette packages started in 1966. However the product did not please
Both the tar and nicotine in cigarettes consumers, and was removed from the
are toxins, each its own way; and that's market two years later.
without mentioning the poisonous An internet search for "cigarette filter
substances such as arsenic used in the patent" produces 425,000 results as
curing process. Nicotine is as addictive manufacturers strive to outdo each over
as heroin or cocaine, and has in the invention of filter materials and
long-lasting effects on the brain's baffles to construct a cigarette which
dopamine systems. The "tar" which filters they claim is less toxic but still
attempt to remove falls into four appealing to smokers.
categories of substances: nitrosamines, It is difficult to make a filter which
widely held to be the most carcinogenic removes tar but not nicotine, and tobacco
of all the agents in tobacco smoke; companies have now focused their
aldehydes, created by the burning of attention on growing tobacco plants with
sugars and cellulose in tobacco; a higher nicotine content, in order to
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which satisfy smokers' nicotine addiction with
form in the cigarette behind the burning proportionately less exposure to tar.
tip; and trace amounts of heavy metals Rumors that cigarette companies
from fertilizers used to grow the plant. "spike"their products with extra nicotine
Tobacco companies were loath to admit in have met with public uproar, since
public that they knew the dangers posed cigarettes are sold as a natural
by their product; however, in a sideways agricultural product.
concession to tobacco foes, they produced Scientists have also experiments with
what were advertised as "safer" filtered tobacco substitutes , with ingredients
cigarettes. such as wood pulp, which would produce
In the 1958 a scientist working for smoke flavor with less tar. Legal hurdles
Philip Morris went so far as to admit have stopped such projects, as they are
publicly that, "Evidence is builing up no longer "natural" but rather an
that heavy smoking contributes to lung artificially-manufactured substance about
cancer." He cleverly suggested that this which health claims are being made. Such
admission could be turned into a "wealth products are treated as drugs, and
of ammunition" to attack the competion by subject to lengthy regulatory battles
suggesting that Philip Morris, unlike its before they are allowed to be sold. For
competitors, made cigarettes with filters the tobacco companies, manipulating
to screen out the toxins. In 1986 the CEO naturally-grown tobacco leaf is cheaper
of British American Tobacco, Patrick and more profitable in a competitive
Sheehy, had a different opinion, and marketplace.






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