The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids - a non-profit organization fighting to reduce tobacco use - has produced a report detailing exactly how cigarettes have changed over the past five decades.
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Cigarettes are more deadly than half a century ago. Smoking today is a lot more risky than it was 50 years ago even if, paradoxically, we smoke less. Needless to say, the fault lies with tobacco companies, which over the years have implemented real subtle strategies to the detriment of consumers.
Thus smokers today have a higher risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than in 1964, despite smoking fewer cigarettes. To say it is an interesting one carry-over area of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids - a non-profit organization fighting to reduce tobacco use - which has produced a revealing infographic that establishes exactly how cigarettes have changed over the past five decades.
The research is based on a review of scientific studies and documents from the tobacco industry and what emerges is that i chemical products added to cigarettes to ensure addiction, reduce hardness and increase the speed of nicotine to go into circulation, have indeed made cigarettes more "addicting", but also more lethal.
The report, entitled Designed for Addiction, shows in detail how tobacco companies have made these changes without any scruple for the health of consumers. In particular, multinationals have produced more "captivating" cigarettes, controlling and increasing nicotine levels and reinforcing the impact of nicotine itself, and have made cigarettes more attractive even for the youngest, with the addition of flavors such as licorice. and chocolate, which mask the hardness of the smoke, or menthol, which makes the smoke softer, or other chemicals, which expand the airways of the lungs and make the smoke easier to inhale.
The report therefore found that smokers today have a much higher risk of lung cancer than smokers in 1964, when the first Surgeon General's report already alerted Americans to the deadly consequences of smoking.
"For decades, the tobacco industry has had complete control over cigarette manufacturing and made a lethal and addictive product, exposing smokers to greater risk of addiction (increased with more nicotine levels), disease and death - he said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Now that it has the authority to regulate tobacco products, the FDA must request changes to these products to reduce the deaths and diseases they cause. Decisions about how tobacco products are to be made and what they contain must be based on the protection of public health and not on the profits of the tobacco industry ”.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other public health organizations therefore called on the FDA to release indications for reduce the toxicity and addiction of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Even though the United States has made tremendous progress in reducing smoking, tobacco use is still the leading cause of death. In the States, smoking kills 480 American citizens every year and costs the nation at least $ 289 million in health care and economic losses.
But what are these blessed blondes really like? The key word is "ammonia“: Producers add it for increase the speed and efficiency of nicotine absorption by the brain. Plus they add sugar to make it easier to inhale smoke and increase the addictive effects of nicotine and alter the taste and smell of cigarettes, to make them taste more pleasant.
As if that weren't enough, tobacco smoke has been industrially made less harsh with the addition of levulinic acid. In this way the smoke is softer and less irritating and even those who are new smokers "hold up" it.
In short, maybe everything that contains the cigarette you are smoking at this moment you already knew and if you have not taken measures for your health so far, it is yours - God forbid - free choice. But maybe think about boycotting these caper tobacco companies that have reduced us super-employees and decrease purchases?
See the full report:
Germana Carillo
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