The myth that rolling your own tobacco contains fewer additives
In my last column, I reported on the massive growth in Australians who have been rolling their own tobacco over the past few decades. Due to a tax anomaly on tobacco, which ends in September of this year, many people have switched to rolling their own cigarettes as an alternative to factory-made cigarettes.
The move to roll your own tobacco is certainly a factor which has slowed down the smoking decline in Australia over the last three years.
In public health, there is a consensus that low price and a high level of public acceptance about the dangers of smoking are two of the most important factors in reducing tobacco use. All industries, including Big Tobacco, engage in price discounts and lobbying for low sales taxes.
Roll-your-own-tobacco’s relative affordability is one of the main reasons for its popularity. However, there are other factors that also play a role. Some people enjoy the creative and relaxing aspect of rolling their own cigarettes.
Sam, a 25-year old man, told a research group at Otago University:
It’s a ritualistic thing to smoke a cigarette or have coffee and a cigarette.
Some smokers think that rolling your own tobacco is less harmful than cigarettes made in factories. These are seen to be pickled with artificial chemical additives, making the tobacco “unnatural”, and should be avoided. Brenda, a twenty-year-old woman, told the researchers:
I imagine that tailor-made has more chemicals. I don’t think that’s the case, but I can’t explain why it tastes like that.
Why do we need additives?
Tobacco products may contain additives.
Make the sensation of smoking “taste” better or “feel better” (also known as “mouthfeel”)
Smoke should be less irritating, especially to new smokers.
Increase the effectiveness with which nicotine and artificial analogues of nicotine reach the brain in order to maximise the addiction
Regulate the Burn Temperature
To prevent the cigarette from “sparking” or sending cinders on the clothing of smokers
Reduce the smell of smoke
To stop tobacco from drying out, use compounds called humectants to retain the maximum amount of moisture in tobacco.
The humectants are a very important category of additives for roll-your-own cigarettes. This is because the tobacco pouches are exposed to air each time the smoker opens them or fails to seal them properly.
New Zealand became the first government to request that the tobacco industry provide data on the amount of additives in tobacco products. The majority of tobacco products imported into New Zealand were from Australia.
It is interesting to read the extract below, which comes from WD & HO Wills’s first report for the NZ Government in 1991. The report obtained through Freedom of Information shows that factory-made cigarettes only contain 0.2% of additives by weight of the total tobacco. Roll-your-own tobacco contains 22.5% and pipe tobacco has a third of additives.
This document obtained through Freedom of Information shows the levels of additives in different types of tobacco. Author provided
The myth that rolling your own tobacco contains fewer additives than cigarettes is busted. A quarter of the smoke from a roll your own cigarette is made up of particles and gases that are the result of the partial thermal decomposition chemical additives.
Why do we not know more about additives?
Cigarettes are exempt from quality and safety standards set by the government. The manufacturers can choose any natural or synthetic ingredient from the long list of approved ingredients.
The Australian government hasn’t approved the safety of these additives, even though they are approved for food. Each smoker inhales and burns them thousands of times per year.
The three major tobacco companies in Australia disclose each year the additives that are used in their brands of cigarettes. They do not specify which “processing agents” they use for each brand or what they are.
The industry assures us.
The term “processing aids”, or “preservatives”, is used to describe preservatives and processing aids that do not have a functional effect on the final product and are not present in significant quantities.
It’s also unclear what “functionally affect” here means. It is noteworthy that manufacturers don’t disclose the same information about roll-your-own cigarettes.
Pesticide residues are ‘extremely high’
The National Health and Medical Research Council Pesticides and Agriculture Chemicals Committee published information in 1981 stating that the average levels of now-banned organochlorine dye DDT were 43 times greater in Australian samples than in US and UK cigarettes.
When questioned about this in 1986, the government told me that the policy was to consider all smoking dangerous, no matter what levels of pesticides or additives they contained.
A senior official said:
Smoking is akin to being in a health hell, and adding additives has the same effect as turning up the heat a few degrees.
The internal documents that I published after a lawsuit in the USA showed alarming levels of pesticide residues in Australian cigarettes, including DDT and Dieldrin.
The 1978 Philip Morris Report is noted.
PM-Australia has found extremely high levels of pesticide residues in all the samples it submitted, for example. DDT group: 300 ppm, HCH-group, 100 ppm, dieldrin up to 22ppm.
PM-Australia refers to Philip Morris Australia, the HCH-group to hexachlorocyclohexane residues and ppm to parts per million.
The levels of DDT are staggering compared to the report of the Commission of the European Communities from 1976, which the German Government adopted.
There are no recent data available on the pesticide residues in cigarettes sold in Australia. All cigarettes and hand-rolled tobacco sold in Australia are grown abroad, usually in less developed countries where agricultural practices may be poorly regulated. Pesticide contamination is likely to continue today.
Yul Brynner, who died of lung cancer aged 65, famously said “whatever you decide.. do not smoke”. Don’t think that the only problem is the additives.
