Starting from 1967, FTC began to measure the contents of nicotine and tar in cigarettes with a tester (filter tar with filter paper and then measure the nicotine content in tar), and published the test results of various brands. However, William Ferro, who has been employed by Altria (former Philip Moliis) since 1976, said that the tar content inhaled by testers is different from that inhaled by smokers. William Ferro's comments were published only three months after the so-called low tar cigarettes came out, but they were dusted off.
Gottley produces the famous Marlboro brand cigarettes. A research report of the company in 1977 shows that the actual tar content of smokers is three times higher than that reported by FTC. However, Gotelli did not inform FTC of the results later, but stated on its website that the data tested by FTC did not represent the amount of tar and nicotine inhaled by smokers. In fact, FTC's test in 1967 showed at the beginning that the data measured by the machine was not the tar content inhaled by smokers. However, hundreds of millions of dollars of advertisements by tobacco companies cover up the truth.
Since 1975, Dr. David Bos has been compiling various medical reports on tobacco. He once thought that reducing tar content was good for smokers, but later he found that this was not the case. We underestimated the design ability of tobacco companies, who let machines inhale a small amount of tar, but let smokers inhale a large amount of tar, Bos said. In fact, smokers who smoke special alcohol cigarettes (the earliest name of low tar cigarettes) have the same tar content as smokers who smoke ordinary cigarettes. This is because machines can't imitate people's smoking habits. The machine smokes for 2 seconds every minute. Machines are not addicted to nicotine, but smokers are not machines. Their smoking habits have a great influence on tar intake.
William Ferro's report points out another fact that is often overlooked by smokers: there are some air holes beside the filter tip of cigarettes to ensure that fresh air comes in and dilute the smell of cigarettes. If you cover the hole with your fingers or lips when smoking, you will inhale more tar. In addition, heavy smoking will also lead to more tar inhalation. Not only that, smokers usually smoke more low-tar cigarettes.
FTC data show that more than 80% of the cigarettes sold in the United States in 200 1 year are low tar cigarettes. People always think that low tar cigarettes are for smokers who care about health, and reducing tar content means reducing deaths. The so-called "coke reduction" has also become an effective gimmick for tobacco companies. More than 20 years ago, when low tar cigarettes were introduced in the market, experts also predicted that the prevalence rate related to smoking would be greatly reduced. However, such a bright future did not appear. Since the FTC test began, 654.38+0.2 million people in the United States have died of smoking, and many deceased people think that low tar cigarettes are equal to the "legend" of low harm. In recent years, this kind of propaganda has caused a lot of concern and litigation. The recently published Framework Convention on Tobacco Control also clearly stipulates that deceptive words such as "low tar" and "light weight" are prohibited.
In this regard, Yang Gonghuan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, said that under the same smoking mode, low tar content is definitely better than high tar content, but smoking is a very complicated behavior. It is the way of smoking that affects the intake of tar. In the opinion of a health expert like her, people ignore common sense. Yang Gonghuan believes that the tar content inhaled by smokers is not directly proportional to the tar content of cigarettes. More importantly, the nicotine content of low-tar cigarettes is the same as that of high-tar cigarettes. Some tobacco companies package low-tar cigarettes into so-called "low nicotine" and "light fragrance", in fact, they are gradually stealing the concept, making smokers mistakenly think that low-tar cigarettes are low-risk cigarettes or even safe cigarettes, thus losing their vigilance and smoking more cigarettes.
It is true that tobacco companies have changed their ideas and equated low tar with low harm, but tar reduction is still the first technical topic in the tobacco industry.
In China, the state clearly stipulates that the tar content in each cigarette is lower than 15 mg, and 15 ~ 20 mg, and higher than 20 mg is higher. Since 1980s, reducing tar and other harmful components has become the main research topic, and various technical problems have been solved. At present, the average tar emission of cigarettes in China has dropped from 30mg/ cigarette in the past to below 15mg/ cigarette now. However, reducing cigarette tar is a very arduous task. It's harder to go down. It is not easy to consider health problems and meet the physiological needs of consumers. Therefore, the research on reducing other harmful components in cigarettes has been paid more and more attention.
On April 15, 2003, it was clearly mentioned in the experience exchange summary of the National Conference on Reducing Coke and Harm in Tobacco Industry that there are mature technologies to reduce tar emission from cigarettes abroad, and these technologies have played a very good role in the application of mixed cigarette products. Because of the characteristics of mixed cigarettes, the tar release is low, and many mixed cigarettes with low tar and ultra-low tar still have physiological strength that satisfies consumers. However, in China, the main cigarette products are flue-cured cigarettes, with high tar release, and it is much more difficult to reduce coke than mixed cigarettes. Selective reduction of harmful components in cigarette smoke can not only relieve the pressure of coke reduction, but also reduce the harmful components in cigarette smoke to a relatively low level, which is an ideal way to reduce coke and harm while improving the safety of cigarette products and ensuring that the style of cigarette products does not change greatly.
"Reducing tobacco harm" is a term with China characteristics. In various disputes about tobacco, perhaps only "harm reduction" can balance the interests of all parties. First, the practice of reducing coke has almost come to an end. A cigarette without tar is not a cigarette in a smoker's mouth. Secondly, the harmful substances of cigarettes are not only tar, but also can reduce other harmful substances, which is also a guarantee for the health of smokers. Of course, everyone wants to make cigarettes that are completely tar-free, nicotine-free and harmless, but no one has made them yet.
Director Zheng of China Tobacco Science and Technology Information Center pointed out in an interview: "Tobacco harm reduction is not absent abroad, but is done little. They mainly do tobacco coke reduction work; What level or standard does the tar content need to reach? Our country requires not only reducing coke, but also reducing harm. In this field, China Tobacco has done a lot of work and should be absolutely ahead in technology. The difference between the two, it should be said that reducing coke is also a means and method to reduce harm. Relatively speaking, the means of coke reduction technology is simpler. "
A series of studies on reducing harmful components in cigarette smoke have been carried out internationally, such as developing special cigarettes that don't burn cut tobacco and cigarettes with less sidestream smoke, using ventilated filters to reduce tar release and carbon monoxide in cigarettes, and using composite filters with functional adsorption materials to adsorb some harmful components in cigarette smoke, which has less negative impact on the aroma and smell of cigarettes, thus realizing selective filtration of harmful components in cigarette smoke.
China's slogan of "harm reduction" is confident, because an experiment of harm reduction has been successful in China and is at the forefront of the world. Experts attending the national conference on reducing coke and harm in tobacco industry and leaders of relevant departments all know that it is to reduce "free radicals".