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Cigarette labelling – not the whole truth...
Tar content labelling on cigarette packets? Just a way of selling more. That is the conclusion of a team of British cancer specialists who published an enlightening study this week in the British Medical Journal.
“These practices are misleading. And it is essential that they are ended because, quite simply, they are dangerous to health”. This is the charge the authors have levelled at cigarette manufacturers.
And with good reason! The amounts of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide indicated on cigarette packets are really quite meaningless because they are assessed by a … machine. And a machine cannot hope to replicate the very varied habits of smokers. In reality, smokers inhale a lot more tar than a mechanical “drag” on a cigarette produces. Most at risk are smokers who inhale large amounts of smoke, or who smoke too quickly.
Worse still, “the systematic labelling of packets with the tar and nicotine content is helping the tobacco industry”, the authors conclude. Furthermore, by highlighting the lower toxin levels in so-called “light” cigarettes – which are in fact more aggressive than traditional cigarettes – manufacturers are providing reassurance to smokers… who therefore go on smoking. It’s as simple as that!
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75 article(s)
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