December 12, 2009
Are There Any Safe Cigarettes Part 2
Trying to stop smoking? Is there a safe alternative that doesn't require you to give up smoking completely?
Tobacco companies were loath to admit in public that they knew the dangers posed by their product; however, in a sideways concession to tobacco foes, they produced what were advertised as "safer" filtered cigarettes.
In the 1958 a scientist working for Philip Morris went so far as to admit publicly that, "Evidence is building up that heavy smoking contributes to lung cancer." He cleverly suggested that this admission could be turned into a "wealth of ammunition" to attack the competition by suggesting that Philip Morris, unlike its competitors, made cigarettes with filters to screen out the toxins.
In 1986 the CEO of British American Tobacco, Patrick Sheehy, had a different opinion, and wrote that, "in attempting to develop a "safe" cigarette you are, by implication, in danger of being interpreted as accepting the current product is unsafe, and this is not a position that I think we should take."
However much tobacco executives attempted to hide the dangers of their product from the public, increasing market demand eventually forced all cigarette companies to develop some filter systems for their cigarettes. Filtered cigarettes accounted for only 1 percent of cigarette purchases in 1950, but this had soared to 87 percent by 1975.
However, the development of filtered cigarettes met two hurdles, one medical and the other a matter of personal taste. Because smokers are nicotine addicts, they will smoke until their craving for nicotine is satisfied.
A filter which removes nicotine will simply prompt them to inhale more deeply or smoke more cigarettes. A filter which removes the tar components of tobacco will remove the taste and smoking sensation to which smokers have become accustomed, and consumers find such a product lacking in "flavor".
Due to compensatory behavior by smokers, the amount of toxins consumed is not significantly less than from an unfiltered cigarette, and there is no proof filtered cigarettes are less of health risk.
Still, tobacco companies persist in their efforts to develop better filters. Often they are hampered not by lack of technical knowledge but by consumer behavior.
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