Smoking is a big business. Quitting smoking is an even bigger business. According to the American Cancer Society, the average smoker spends US$1,500 a year on tobacco products – representing at least 3% of the average American’s income. Needless to say, major tobacco companies are laughing all the way to the bank, every year.
The CEOs of these tobacco companies are taking home tens of millions of dollars annually. The top CEO of a tobacco company makes so much money that it would take a Brazilian tobacco farmer 6 years to earn what the company’s director makes in a single day. The combination of top five richest tobacco companies amounting to a staggering revenue of US$321.8 billion (£189.3 billion, RM1,037 billion).
Unless smokers quit smoking, these tobacco companies will continue to make more money. But can you really quit smoking? It’s extremely difficult to do so. Even if you decide to quit smoking by slowly taking lesser puffs, or by smoking menthol cigarettes, chances are high you would fail. The reason – menthol cigarettes are “more addictive”.
In July 2010, Canada banned the sale of flavoured cigarettes and blunt wraps – but not menthol cigarettes. There were an estimated 32% of smokers in Canadian high schools smoke menthols. The bad news – a study by Cancer Causes and Control found that menthol smokers were almost three times more likely to say that they intend to continue smoking in the next year.
In April 2014, the European Union (EU) adopted a new Tobacco Products Directive that will see all 28 EU countries implement a ban on menthol cigarettes. Still, it is an uphill battle considering menthol cigarette is most common among 12 to 17-year-olds with 57% of smokers in this age group smoke menthol cigarettes compared to 30% of older smokers.
While governments were fighting the menthol cigarettes battle, tobacco companies continue to be creative and innovative in designing more deadly cigarettes. You may not realize it but tobacco companies have been (secretly) designing and introducing cigarettes to make tobacco smoke smoother, less harsh and more appealing to new consumers – especially kids – and to create and sustain addiction to nicotine.
In spite of the fact that smoking kills 480,000 Americans, 100,000 Britons or 6 million people around the world annually, tobacco companies continue to play dumb as if a stick of cigarette is like a stick of lollipop. United States spends at least US$289 billion in health care bills and economic losses annually. So, how did tobacco companies make cigarettes more addictive, more attractive to kids and more deadly? Here’re 9 Secret Methods:
Making Cigarettes More Addictive
- { Step 1 } Increased Nicotine: Tobacco companies control the delivery and amount of nicotine to create and sustain addiction.
- { Step 2 } Ammonia: Adding ammonia compounds produce higher levels of “freebase” nicotine and increase the speed with which nicotine hits the brain.
- { Step 3 } Sugars and Acetaldehyde: Adding sugars make tobacco smoke easier to inhale and, when burned in cigarettes, form acetaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical that enhances nicotine’s addictive effects.
Making Cigarettes More Attractive
- { Step 4 } Levulinic Acid: Adding organic acid salts, like levulinic acid, reduce the harshness of nicotine and make the smoke smoother and less irritating.
- { Step 5 } Flavorings: Adding flavors like licorice and chocolate mask the harshness of the smoke and make tobacco products more appealing to young people.
- { Step 6 } Bronchodilators: These added chemicals expand the lungs’ airways, making it easier for tobacco smoke to pass into the lungs.
- { Step 7 } Menthol: Menthol cools and numbs the throat to reduce irritation and make the smoke feel smoother.
Making Cigarettes More Harmful
- { Step 8 } Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamines: Levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, a potent carcinogen, have increased substantially in American cigarettes in recent decades and are much higher than in cigarettes from Australia and Canada. Factors affecting levels of nitrosamines include the tobacco blends and curing process used.
- { Step 9 } Ventilated Filters: Ventilation holes in cigarette filters cause smokers to inhale more vigorously, drawing carcinogens deeper into the lungs.
Cigarettes with ventilated filters were introduced by tobacco companies because they produced lower levels of tar and nicotine in machine tests and were marketed as less hazardous. However, the evidence now shows that these cigarettes did not reduce health risks and likely increased smokers’ risk of lung cancer.
Tobacco companies also know that 90% of adult smokers start at or before age 18 and that smoking is unpleasant for new smokers, so they use chemical additives to make tobacco smoke smoother, less harsh and more appealing to the young, novice smoker. As a result of above systematic measures to increase profits, tobacco companies have made cigarettes more addictive, more attractive to kids but unfortunately – more deadly.
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June 25th, 2014 by financetwitter
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Now people will know in this article that adding an ammonia compound in the cigarettes will make It more addictive. For the ammonia compound produce higher level of freebase nicotine and increase speed with which nicotine hits the brain.