Cigarettes contain up to 26
times more tar and nicotine than indicated on their packaging, according to new
research by the Dutch public health council RIVM.
It tested 100 different brands of cigarettes available on the Dutch market for tar, nicotine and carbon
monoxide content using the Canadian Intense method. This, the RIVM says, gives
a more accurate picture of what smokers are actually inhaling than the current
ISO European system.
The worst offender
was Marlboro Prime, with 26 times the tar and 17 times the nicotine on the
label. Kent HD White was next on the list, followed by
Peter Stuyvesant Silver. ‘With the exception of one cigarette, all
measured TNCO levels exceed the legal limits,’ the RIVM said.
Cigarette smoke
is tested in laboratories for tar and nicotine, but the results are distorted
by the use of tiny holes in the filters. These are closed up by the mouth and
fingers when people smoke, but left open during the testing process.
The
Canadian method involves taping up these holes, giving a more accurate picture
of what smokers ingest. The new research confirms that the holes in the filters
distort the results, the RIVM said.
Confirmation
‘The results of this research
support the conclusion that the prescribed ISO method underestimates the
amounts of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide that a smoker ingests,’ the RIVM
said.
‘The committee that drew up this method is largely influenced by the
tobacco industry. RIVM therefore recommends that an independent measurement
method… be included in the law, instead of the ISO method.’
Minister
‘We
assumed the results would be bad, but to be honest I am really shocked by these
results,’ health minister Paul Blokhuis said following the publication of the
report. His predecessor had commissioned the results following the controversy
over testing methods.
‘It is extremely worrying that smokers are taking in much
more poison than they had been told – between twice and 26 times as much,’ the
minister said.
Blokhuis is campaigning for the EU to adopt a different way of
measuring the contents of cigarettes and says the current method was devised by
a commission heavily influenced by the tobacco lobby.
Court case
Earlier this
year, the Dutch public prosecution department said it would not proceed with a
criminal case against the big tobacco companies based in the Netherlands in
which the firms are accused of deliberately damaging public health and forgery
– because of the way tar and nicotine are measured.
The case was launched in
2016 by lung cancer patient Anne Marie van Veen and lawyer Bénédicte Ficq.
They
say tobacco firms have lied to smokers about the damaging side effects of their
addiction, particularly by using cigarettes that give false readings in test
results through the use of the tiny ventilation holes in filters.
Ficq
is appealing against the decision not to prosecute.
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