What's Worse? Smoking Clove or FSC Cigarettes?

When I first heard that the FDA might begin to regulate cigarettes, I thought it would be a good thing. As consumers, we need control over what additives are put into cigarettes. Smokers have the right to know what's being added to cigarettes, either physically or as a processing byproduct.

• What are the short- and long-term effects of smoking the recently added fire-safe (FSC) materials?
• What are the adhesive-looking marks are that can be seen on the inside of FSC cigarette papers?
• What procedures are used during the growing, harvesting, and manufacturing process?
• Do manufacturers use the irradiation process to kill bacteria and bugs in the tobacco?
• What types of pesticides are used while the tobacco is being grown?
• Do countries like Indonesia, where many clove cigarettes (Kreteks) come from, still use DDT?
• Is the FDA going to reduce harmful additives, or blow it off because smoking is harmful in and of itself?

The initial news about the FDA regulating cigarettes implied that limits would be placed on stuff that kids love: candy-flavored cigarettes--chocolate, vanilla, peach, strawberry, and other flavored bidis. But further news was published, with details about clove-containing cigarettes being banned, too; and then came the full details of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that only an "estimated 3% of high school students and 2% of middle school students smoke clove cigarettes, and 3% of high school students and 2% of middle school students smoke bidis." Taking cloves and bidis off the market may actually have no effect on the number of teen smokers. Who among us doesn't believe that if teens want to smoke, they'll smoke what ever they can get their hands on?

What about the brands of cigarettes that the majority of teens actually do smoke? This article sums up my point nicely with these statistics, "A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that three brands of cigarettes--Marlboro, Newport, and Camel--were preferred by 81 percent of middle- and high-school students. Survey results show that 52 percent of established smokers in high-school chose Marlboro, while 21 percent chose Newport, and 13 percent preferred Camel; the middle school percentages were 43, 26 and 9 percent, respectively."

Why doesn't the CDC have statistics about the adult population of clove cigarette smokers? And what about menthol cigarettes? The menthol additives aren't even a natural ingredient being added, whereas cloves are at least a natural ingredient.

I'm just saying that banning clove cigarettes isn't the answer to preventing teens from smoking, and there should be a lot more concern about the harmful effects of the recently added ingredients that make cigarettes so-called "fire-safe." Check the links at the bottom of this article for reports of strange reactions to the new FSC cigarettes.

• It's easy to understand that the new flavored cigarette regulations are supposed to prevent teens from smoking-sure, take the candy flavored cigarettes off the market. Sounds like a good idea, but so few teens smoke them, and teens will end up smoking something else if they really want to smoke.
• It's easy to understand that the country needs less home- and forest-fires that end up being started by cigarettes-so yes, fire-safe cigarettes are a good idea, but not if the effects of smoking the FSC ingredients haven't been tested. And, from all the reports (see links below), the fire-safe cigarettes don't sound fire-safe at all.
• It's also easy to understand that everyone really should quit smoking. But the reality is that adult smokers have the right to smoke, quitting isn't easy, and if cigarettes can be less harmful they should be.
• Why not take a more regulatory approach? Change the Kretek product names from cigarettes to cigars and make them only available in cigar shops. Add more warning labels, disallow the use of certain chemicals and pesticides. Make the fines more strict for store owners who sell cigarettes to minors. Make it illegal for minors to smoke!
• Most importantly, if the government is worried about the effects of smoking on teens and anyone else, it should monitor the effects of the fire-retardant additives. It's not easy to understand how the country is going to pay for all the compounded ill-effects from FSC cigarettes. What's the assumption with the newly added toxins? Smokers will either quit or die?

Useful Links

http://hubpages.com/hub/Fire-Safe-Cigarettes

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/repeal-fire-safe-cigarette-laws

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_safe_cigarette

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-11705-NY-Holistic-Body--Spirit-Examiner~y2009m7d12-Are-the-new-FSC-firesafe-cigarettes-making-smokers-sicker-than-ever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene-vinyl_acetate

Excerpts from http://dynamic.firehouse.com/broadcast/2008/09/25/the-nfpas-fire-safe-cigarette-campaign/:

"The added and higher level chemicals contained in FSC cigarettes has proven to be more toxic than regular cigarettes and cause increased health related problems for smokers. Symptoms/conditions include, but are not limited to: Nausea, sores in mouth and throat, dry throat, constant headaches, extreme coughing, tightness in the chest, vomiting, body aches, pain in the abdomen and respiratory conditions including asthma and bronchitis."

"The Harvard School of Health reported that when comparing NY Cigarettes (FSC) versus Regular Cigarettes, the FSC cigarettes produced 13.9% more Naphthalene and 11.4% more carbon monoxide than regular cigarettes."

"Naphthalene is commonly found in moth balls, and exposure in high amounts can result in headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, malaise, confusion, anemia, jaundice, convulsions, and coma. Therefore, it has been proven that FSC cigarettes contain higher levels of chemicals that are harmful to smokers."

"Phillip Morris USA has reported that the Adhesive ethylene vinyl acetate and polyvinyl acetate are used in the non-tobacco ingredients of cigarettes produced as a side-seam adhesive. However, Phillip Morris USA fails to distinguish the differences in levels between regular and FSC cigarettes. The amount does not exceed .6 % combined. Since additional layers of paper are used in FSC cigarettes, more adhesive is needed in the form of ethylene vinyl acetate."