British American Tobacco Testing Chocolate and Sweet Cigarettes
British American Tobacco (BAT) has been conducting trials on new
cigarettes that would be laced with flavors like chocolate, wine,
sherry, tea, cocoa, cherry juice, corn syrup, vanilla, and maple
syrup, the Independent reported June 3.
The anti-smoking lobbying group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
has blasted BAT for developing cigarettes ASH says are aimed at
encouraging children to smoke.
"Adding sweets to tobacco is appalling. It shows that we need
more tobacco regulation to prevent anything being added that could
make tobacco more attractive, or smoother, or easier to use,"
said Deborah Arnott, director of ASH. "These are the sort of
ingredients that could make cigarettes more attractive to children.
Why would they want to test these sort of additives?"
Frank Dobson, a former health secretary in Britain, added, "We
all know that hardly anyone takes up smoking when they are grown
up. That is why the tobacco industry wants to target children. In
this country, they kill 120,000 of their customers each year and
they have to recruit 120,000 to make up for it."
A BAT spokesman said the flavor trials were conducted to determine
if cigarettes with added ingredients had different effects on health
compared with cigarettes without additives. The study was conducted
in Canada on laboratory rats.
The spokesman said chocolate and tea were tested because they were
currently used or could be used in the future. "I don't want
to say tea never; chocolate, never. It is there for a reason. It
is not something that is common," the spokesman said. "Anybody
who might attempt to claim that they are added to appeal to youth
are barking mad because cigarettes taste like cigarettes."
BAT said the study found no "discernible" difference
between the effects of tobacco smoke with or without additives on
the health of rats.
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