BC rules make industry come clean
Ammonia? Propylene glycol? Just what goes into a cigarette?
British Columbians know what's in cigarettes, thanks to regulations introduced in 1998 that force tobacco manufacturers to report the additives and ingredients in cigarettes – and to test cigarette smoke for toxic chemicals.
The regulations make BC the first place anywhere that requires tobacco manufacturers to release detailed information about the contents of tobacco smoke. Those compounds include deadly chemicals like cyanide.
The tobacco manufacturers don’t only have to reveal what goes into tobacco. Manufacturers have to reveal what’s in the cigarette papers and filters, too.
Manufacturers must report on 42 selected chemicals found in tobacco smoke. They include cancer-causing agents and toxins like arsenic, benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, cadmium, hydrogen cyanide and toluene.
The Ministry of Health has posted this information obtained from the tobacco industry. So now you can find out the additives and ingredients in cigarettes, tobacco, paper, filter, and filter paper as well as the chemicals in cigarette smoke. And you can look at the information by cigarette brand.
Take a look
at
www.health.gov.bc.ca/ttdr/index.html
The information should surprise and shock you.