Emissions from herbal cigarettes may be more damaging than those from tobacco ones, study finds

Herbal cigarettes widely sold in India and abroad as natural tobaccofree and therapeutic alternatives to conventional cigarettes are not safer than regular tobacco cigarettes they produce emissions that can be comparably or even more damaging than tobacco smoke according to a studyFindings published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials present a comprehensive comparison of the physical chemical and oxidative properties of mainstream firsthand smoke from commercially available herbal and tobacco cigarettes in the Indian market researchers saidOur findings challenge the widely held belief that tobaccofree means riskfree author Sameer Patel an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagars department of civil engineering and chemical engineering saidThe researchers compared emissions from two of Indias bestselling tobacco brands and four popular herbal varieties containing combinations of basil clove cinnamon mint green tea water lily and chamomileEmissions from herbal cigarettes are comparable to or exceeded those from tobacco cigarettes on nearly every metric we measured Leafwrapped herbal variants turned out to be the most hazardous of all the samples tested Patel saidThe team noted that two of the herbal brands utilised tendu ebony leaves as wrappers identical to those used in bidis the countrys most widely consumed smoking productOur findings indicate that the emissions characteristics of HCs herbal cigarettes matched or even exceeded those of TCs tobacco cigarettes suggesting that HCs are as hazardous as TCs and underscoring the urgent need for regulatory oversight guided by a comprehensive toxicological evaluation of herbal cigarettes the authors wroteSub500 nm nanometre particle concentrations were about 20 per cent higher in HC than in TC they said and added that the fine particles are increasingly linked to cardiovascular and respiratory diseaseEach cigarette was combusted inside a sealed automated twochamber rig designed to replicate human inhalation rateThe cigarettes emissions were funnelled into realtime instruments and filter samples were collected for physical and chemical characterisation of particles As a proxy for the potential toxicity of emissions the oxidative potential which quantifies the smokes capacity to generate reactive oxygen species of the collected samples was quantifiedReactive oxygen species are aggressive molecules known to drive inflammation lung tissue remodelling and vascular changes underlying heart diseaseParticulate matter from herbal cigarettes were found to record a significantly higher oxidative potential compared to that from tobacco cigarettesTenduleafwrapped variants in particular showed an oxidative potential roughly 49 per cent higher than paperwrapped versions A chemical analysis also revealed that one herbal cigarette filled with basil had the highest lead concentration despite being marketed as chemicalfree with 100 per cent natural filler for a healthy lifestyleThat finding is important because many consumers associate nicotinefree products with reduced harm author Vishal Verma a research collaborator and an associate professor of environmental engineering in the US University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign saidThe study also reveals a regulatory gap problem surrounding herbal cigarettes Indias Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003 COTPA regulates tobacco products through warning labels advertising restrictions and publicsmoking rules but products marketed as tobaccofree often fall outside these frameworks Comparable regulatory gaps exist in several other countries the researchers saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever