Tobacco firm underplayed dangers of smoking
January 9th, 2012 - 12:34 am ICT by IANSWashington, Jan 8 (IANS) Tobacco firm Phillip Morris underplayed the dangers from cigarette additives, including menthol, masking toxicity levels and increasing chances of heart, cancer and other diseases for smokers.Researchers from University of California San Francisco (UCSF) said that they have found that hundreds of additives, including menthol, should be eliminated from cigarettes on public health grounds.
“When we conducted our own analysis by studying additives per cigarette-following Philip Morris’ original protocol-we found that 15 carcinogenic chemicals increased by 20 percent or more,” said senior author Stanton A. Glantz, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the UCSF.
In the independent study, Glantz and team reassessed data from Philip Morris’ ‘Project MIX,’ which detailed chemical analyses of smoke and animal toxicology studies of 333 cigarette additives. Philip Morris is the largest tobacco company in the US.
Researchers also found after obtaining evidence that additives increased toxicity, that tobacco scientists adjusted the protocol for presenting their results in a way that obscured these increases.
Additionally, in the independent study, the researchers discovered the reason behind Philip Morris’ failure to identify many toxic effects in animal studies: its studies were too small.
Researchers used documents made public as a result of litigation against the tobacco industry. The documents are available to the public through UCSF’s Legacy Tobacco Documents Library.
- Chinese 'herbal' cigarettes no safer than regular ones - Dec 04, 2009
- Giving up menthol ciggies may be harder for some smokers - Dec 21, 2010
- Chinese 'herbal' ciggies as unhealthy as regular ones - Dec 04, 2009
- Tobacco firms use 'diet-aid chemicals to make you thin' - Apr 24, 2011
- Electronic ciggies pose health risks: Study - Dec 04, 2010
- e-cigarettes are potentially harmful - Dec 05, 2010
- Attitude towards tobacco industry influences smoking behaviour - May 07, 2009
- E- ciggies much safer than real ones: Study - Dec 17, 2010
- Cigarette smoking may increase risk of muscle-wasting disease - Feb 15, 2011
- After cigarettes, health ministry targets other tobacco - Apr 04, 2011
- After cigarettes, health ministry targets other tobacco (Lead) - Apr 04, 2011
- Anti-smoking campaigners rally against Johnny Depp's Rango - Mar 12, 2011
- After cigarettes, government to crack down on chewing tobacco use (Second Lead) - Apr 04, 2011
- Harm reduction ciggies 'more harmful than conventional brands' - Oct 21, 2010
- Tobacco industry manipulating cigarette menthol to attract young smokers - Jul 17, 2008
Tags: animal studies, california san francisco, carcinogenic chemicals, chemical analyses, cigarette additives, dangers of smoking, documents library, health grounds, heart cancer, independent study, philip morris, Phillip Morris, tobacco company, tobacco control research, tobacco documents, tobacco firm, tobacco industry, toxicity levels, toxicology studies, university of california san francisco