Posted on June 27, 2007 in Latest News
Filters intended for cigarettes are designed specifically to absorb vapors and to amass particulate smoke components. These cigarette filters also prevent tobacco entering a smoker’s mouth and double up as a mouthpiece that will not collapse when the cigarette is smoked.
Components of Cigarette Filters
A plug or a cap, with which the majority of cigarette filters are made, is composed of cellulose acetate - a plastic. The balance are made from papers and rayon. The cellulose acetate tow fibers are finer than even sewing thread. They are white in color and packed tightly together to create a filter. At first glance they look similar to cotton.
History of Cigarette Filters
In the 1950s there were numerous medical studies being conducted that conclusively linked smoking and lung cancer. The reaction from the public health offices, social awareness agencies and the community led to the cigarette manufacturers response of mass-marketing the filter-tip cigarette. The initiative behind the filter was to screen out tar and nicotine to make cigarette smoking safer. This innovation in the cigarette industry led to the filter tipped cigarettes dominating the market by the 1960s even as they continued to be a specialty item.
Public demands for healthier cigarettes were met by the manufacturers who changed the filter’s structure and materials. Aggressive marketing strategies for upward sales led filter cigarette manufacturers to make competing claims with products of other manufacturers about how low tar and nicotine levels are in their brands.
Are Cigarette Filters Effective?
The majority of cigarettes filters bear ventilation holes punched around the circumference of the filter tip. The ordinary cigarettes might have one ring of ventilation holes, but light and ultra-light cigarettes might boast two or more rings. These tiny holes can be viewed in bright light by holding the unrolled paper up. The property of these ventilation holes is to allow enough fresh air into the smoke. So these cigarettes test low in tar and nicotine levels when smoked, if they are uncovered by the user.
If smokers’ fingers or lips cover some of these holes as they puff, this action can result in giving them much higher doses of tar and nicotine than advertised. Critics of the tobacco industry slam this feature by arguing that the holes create a flexible dosing system allowing addicted smokers to maintain the tar and nicotine levels they crave while falsely believing they are inhaling lower, safer doses.
The problem with cigarette filters is that they might not really produce the intended effect of reduced tar and nicotine levels, if the ventilation holes are covered. Nicotine addiction has another alternate mechanism to cigarette filters: receiving it from nicotine gum and patches, which at least eliminates the tar.
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September 24th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
My mother-in-law is a heavy smoker with a fragile health history. Instead of cutting down the amount of cigarettes she smokes, she has decided to pierce holes around the edge of the filter with a toothpick, saying the amount of smoke going to her is reduced significantly. The trouble is, we (her family) feel that the amount of smoke liberated (unfiltered)through those holes into the air we all (have to) breathe is very heavy and it is making us all ill.
Is there some kind of official site that we can show her to prove that she might be altogether wrong?
October 20th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
in response to Leila on September 24th, 2007 10:56 pm
actually, she is helping herself a little bit more, but not much.
the punching of holes into the filter is to make the filter act like a centuri device.
in laymans terms, it’s not for the reason that you think or understand correctly.
punching holes in the filter helps the smoker to reduce the amount of smoke in their lungs by also allowing air to be inhaled along with the smoke.
the smoke from the cigarette is not ejected (liberated) from the holes like you thought, instead the smoke is still inhaled by the smoker, but when the smoker sucks on the filter, air is also sucked in through the holes and mixed with the smoke that is passing through the filter (that’s a centuri effect), essentially you are inhaling less smoke per puff on the cig than you do without the holes because of the air that is also drawn in (but don’t guarantee yourself that it is a significantly safer way of smoking, the results are all inconclusive). your lungs can only hold so much, so now you have a mix of air & smoke instead of just smoke.
in essence you as a passive smoker are not being harmed any more or less than before punching the holes into the filter, but your mother-in-law is inhaling less smoke/nicotine each puff. (but you may find that she may smoke more cigs per day because of that)