12.7 Additives in Australian cigarettes
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As noted previously, cigarette additives have a range of purposes: to facilitate manufacture, increase shelf life, control burn rates, nicotine delivery, flavour and harshness/irritation.18, 4 The main classes of additives and some examples of each are as follows:
- Processing aids facilitate the manufacture of cigarettes, such as by making cured tobacco less brittle. These include several ammonia compounds, carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol.
- Combustion aids. Other additives are used to control the smoking mechanics of cigarettes, such as by controlling the burning properties of cigarette paper. These include ammonium and sodium phosphate and sodium and potassium citrate.
- Flavour additives. Flavours are used to improve the taste of cigarette smoke, either by introducing pleasant flavour 'notes' or masking unpleasant ones. These include liquorice, cocoa, honey, various fruit extracts and various spices.
- Humectants. Humectants are used to keep tobacco moist and pliable. These include sugars, glycerine and glycol compounds.
- Nicotine delivery regulators. Another reason for using additives, which the tobacco industry does not readily acknowledge, is to facilitate the delivery of rewarding doses of nicotine. Ammonia compounds are added to some brands in order to increase the level of unprotonated nicotine in the smoke.
It should also be noted that many additives are used for combinations of the aforementioned purposes. For instance, humectants, such as glycols, function both to make tobacco more pliable, to increase the shelf life of cigarettes and to make the smoke taste smoother.19 Ammonia compounds make reconstituted tobacco sheet more pliable, improve flavour by reacting with compounds in tobacco to produce a number of pleasant tasting sugars and increase the level of unprotonated nicotine in the smoke.18
Since 2000 there has been a voluntary agreement on the disclosure of the ingredients of Australian cigarettes.3 However, the information disclosed under the voluntary agreement is of dubious utility. There are composite disclosures of hundreds of ingredients that the industry says it may potentially use. There are also brand-by-brand disclosures that list the major ingredients in descending order by weight. Thus, it is not possible to know all of the ingredients that are used in each brand in practice or the levels at which they are added.
The tobacco industry claims that all of the potential ingredients in Australian cigarettes are 'generally regarded as safe' (or 'GRAS') for use as food and beverage ingredients by toxicologists. However, labelling cigarette ingredients as 'GRAS' glosses over the fact that these ingredients are vaporised or combusted and inhaled into the lungs, rather than ingested, as with food and beverages. It also glosses over the fact that these ingredients are generally used to facilitate the delivery of toxic and addictive smoke products by making cigarettes more attractive.
During the period when 'low tar' cigarettes were believed to reduce intakes of harmful smoke constituents, there was some hope within tobacco control circles that flavour additives would help make 'low tar' cigarettes more acceptable and thus reduce smokers' harmful intakes.18 Now that this hope has proved illusory, any additives that are used to make cigarettes more acceptable or attractive arguably only impact negatively on public health insofar as they deter quitting and facilitate initiation.
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