Roll-ups are unhealthier than ordinary cigarettes

MADRID – It is no news that sales of roll-up tobacco have experienced a boom during the present financial crisis. A recent report doesn't mention sales in the rest of Europe, where it’s easy to conclude that something similar has occurred as a way to make the habit cheaper for smokers or as a step towards giving it up. Spain’s National Commission for the Tobacco Market recently issued a report confirming the fact. This week the Commission issued another report on roll-ups (tabaco de liar in Spanish), which said that the reason for the upsurge in sales may not be entirely due to financial constraints but also because there is a widespread belief that roll-ups are ‘healthier’ than ordinary cigarettes . They’d be wrong: various studies have concluded that although he or she may be smoking less (down from an average of 27.9 per day to 18.5 in Spain), they are nevertheless breathing a heavier concentration of carbon monoxide, which damages the arteries and is often the cause of heart disease, heart attacks, aneurysms, and more.

The reason, says Carlos Jiménez Ruiz, of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery and co-author of the study, is that in a manufactured cigarette the paper compacts the tobacco, while roll-ups need more paper. Thus, more CO is produced. “Addicts smoking roll-ups tend to take more puffs and breathe the smoke more deeply, possibly to compensate for smoking fewer cigarettes,” says Jimenez. The result is that not only is more CO absorbed into the system but also a higher level of cotinine (the substance contained in nicotine that remains in the blood system one or two hours longer than nicotine itself), which is not markedly different to that of smokers of manufactured cigarettes, as might be expected given lower consumption rates.

A 2011 report (by the National Institute of Consumers) report concludes that rolls are more dangerous than ordinary smokes, not only because of the amount of carbon monoxide absorbed but also because of an increase in nicotine dependency. Roll-up smokers are very rarely aware of the amount of nicotine and tar they are taking in as only 33% of rolling tobacco brands gives such details, and none of them mention carbon monoxide. The European Directive on Tobacco, (the EU is waiting for Spain to make it law). Curiously (or maybe not), in its Article 13, Clause 1a, the directive expressly forbids including this information as “it induces error, as it induces consumers to believe that some cigarettes are less harmful than others.”

(Original article: El PaÍs online, 19/09/14)