How safe are Chinese herbal cigarettes?
According to the latest scientific studies, Chinese herbal cigarettes, combining tobacco with herbs, are just as addictive and no safer than conventional cigarettes. ‘We hope our findings will help to dispel the myth that they are a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes; they are not,’ said Stanton A. Glantz, professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who led the study. It is imperative for the Chinese tobacco industry to avoid misleading the public when promoting herbal cigarettes as ‘safer’ products; this is especially important for the young who are easily lured by promises that are not backed up with accurate information. Unfortunately, Chinese herbal cigarettes are becoming hugely popular in China and elsewhere. In his study, professor Glantz, with UCSF and Chinese colleagues, compared 135 people in a Chinese city who smoked herbal cigarettes with 143 people who smoked conventional cigarettes. The researchers evaluated participants’ urine samples
