Additives add to the health hazards of cigarettes - Sixteen European countries jointly warn about this
The tobacco industry uses a large number of additives to increase the attractiveness of cigarettes. The PITOC (Public Information on Tobacco Control) project informs the public about the substances used and their impact on health. PITOC has been jointly developed by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). On September 13, as part of this project, sixteen European countries will launch websites educating the public about the manifold effects of tobacco additives.
© Bundesamt für Gesundheit (BAG), Schweiz
Additives can make cigarettes more attractive by suppressing several of the undesired effects that arise when inhaling tobacco smoke. Some are used to cover the bitter and harsh smell and taste of inhaled smoke. Others reduce the irritating effect of tobacco smoke on the respiratory tract so that the body’s warning signal of its harmfulness is silenced. Yet others give a white color to ash and smoke or make the cigarette look nicer.
The newly launched websites now offer easily understandable, objective information about the mechanisms of fourteen selected cigarette additives and their impact on health. The additives covered include sugar, liquorice, cocoa, menthol, vanilla, cellulose, and glycerol – substances which cigarette manufacturers deliberately add to tobacco to make cigarettes more attractive.
Vanilla, for example, is added to tobacco, cigarette paper, or filters to cover the harsh taste of tobacco smoke. “Tobacco additives make it easier to take up smoking and they make it harder to quit because product properties are more pleasant,” warns Dr. Martina Pötschke-Langer, head of the Division of Cancer Prevention at the German Cancer Research Center. “This makes hazardous products even more hazardous.” Moreover, burning of many of these additives produces a host of chemicals including substances which have been classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon.
To sum up, tobacco additives have a substantial impact on public health by making health-hazardous products more attractive. Smoking is a major cause in the development of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases. In Europe, nearly 700,000 people die each year from the consequences of smoking; in Germany alone it is 110,000 people.
The countries involved in the PITOC project:
The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Malta, Austria, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, Finland, Turkey and Switzerland.
Please find the English websites on the PITOC project at:
http://www.dkfz.de/de/tabakkontrolle/PITOC_Additives_in_Tobacco_Products.html
With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.
To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
