Listed: the 600 poisons in every cigarette
Smokers are inhaling a lethal cocktail of 600 additives as well as nicotine every time they light up. In an attempt to disgust people into giving up, the Health Secretary Alan Milburn has released for the first time the exact make-up of a cigarette.
Smokers are inhaling a lethal cocktail of 600 additives as well as nicotine every time they light up. In an attempt to disgust people into giving up, the Health Secretary Alan Milburn has released for the first time the exact make-up of a cigarette.
Among additives used are acetone, used to make paint stripper; ammonia, contained in toilet cleaners; butane, a form of lighter fuel; and beta-naphthyl methylether, more commonly known as mothballs.
Smokers are also opening themselves to the risk of inhaling hydrogen cyanide, the poison used in gas chambers, methanol, a rocket fuel, arsenic and carbon monoxide, the poisonous gas in car exhausts.
Worryingly, given the fight against smoking among children, various scents and sweeteners can also be used in cigarette manufacture.
Mr Milburn has put an end to a clandestine deal said to have been struck between the Tories when in power and the tobacco companies to suppress the information. He has posted on the Department of Health website the names of the 600 additives contained in popular brands of cigarettes and the damaging by-products which they can produce when lit.
Mr Milburn said details of the additives were supplied to the health department by voluntary agreement in March 1997. But, to date, the tobacco firms have refused to detail which additives are used in which brand of cigarette, prompting the Government to push them for further revelations.
The Government is also currently negotiating a European Union directive which would make full disclosure of all additives in cigarettes mandatory.
The new policy comes in direct contrast to an agreement made under the Tories to keep the information "confidential". John Carlisle, spokesman for the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, denied there had ever been a secret deal not to release the list of additives but admitted companies are reluctant to publish details of additives in particular brands for commercial reasons.
He said: "This information has been publicly available since 1995. The fact is no one has ever asked for it."
Mr Carlisle claimed that 95 per cent of all British cigarettes were Virginia blend and contained no flavouring. He added: "Remember this is a government-approved list. If these things are harmful, why hasn't the Government removed them?"
Amanda Sandford, of the anti-smoking group Ash, said that tobacco companies had been allowed to put additives in cigarettes for 30 years without any public scrutiny.
She added: "There was a conspiracy of silence over this list and, unless we are now told what additives go into particular brands, we will never be able to calculate how these cocktails of chemicals affect people."
