Rethink of how toxins measured in cigarettes urged
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Scientists and a leading anti-smoking group called on Wednesday for an overhaul of how toxins in cigarette smoke are measured after industry documents showed how they can be used to deceive smokers.
Tar and nicotine content, the cancer-causing and addictive elements of cigarettes is tested on machines. But because of the way people smoke, blocking filters or taking deeper drags on so-called light or mild low tar brands, the levels they receive are actually higher than a machine reading would be.
In a review of documents on smoking behavior by Imperial Tobacco Ltd and British American Tobacco, researchers said BAT specifically developed cigarettes knowing this.
“The current review leaves little doubt that the ISO (International Standards Organization) standards should be discarded in favor of new standards that meet the needs of consumers and regulators, rather than the tobacco industry,” Professor David Hammond, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, said in the report.
Hammond and his team said the industry documents show BAT knew smokers compensated for the low tar, promoted as a safer option, by taking deeper puffs more often.
So although cigarette packs say the yields of tar and nicotine based on ISO standard may be only a fraction of the level of regular cigarettes, smokers receive much more.
“Overall, the documents seem to reveal a product strategy intended to exploit the limitations of the testing protocols and to intentionally conceal from consumers and regulators the potential toxicity of BAT products revealed by BAT’s own research,” he said.
A spokeswoman for BAT said the tobacco industry and health bodies acknowledge that ISO yields are not accurate measures for human smoking. Imperial Tobacco said it had not seen the report so could not comment on it.
“APPALLING”
The anti-smoking group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) described the research published online by the Lancet medical journal as another example of the disgraceful behavior of the tobacco industry.
“It is appalling the way they deliberately set out to mislead smokers about the toxins in tobacco smoke knowing full well these machine measurements do not reflect how people smoke and therefore how much carbon monoxide and other toxins they are inhaling,” Amanda Sandford, of ASH, said in an interview.
“We need a major overhaul of the system for measuring toxins in tobacco smoke,” she added.
The charity Cancer Research UK said the report gives incontrovertible evidence that BAT has been completely aware that its light and mild cigarettes are as dangerous as any others.
“Consumers must know what they are consuming, which means that we need better testing methods for cigarettes. Tobacco companies must be prevented from manipulating their products and marketing them to mislead consumers into thinking cigarettes are less hazardous than they really are,” Jean King, the director of tobacco control at the charity, said in a statement.
ASH says the measurements of tar and nicotine should be taken off cigarette packaging because they do not provide any meaningful information for consumers.
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