A closer look at additive-free tobacco

Here is the newcomer in the world of smoking: additive-free tobacco. It reportedly appeals in particular to people trying to give up and to those looking for something more “natural”. A closer look at additive-free tobacco and at the arguments made for it.

What is additive-free tobacco?

Smoking is a bad habit that can have serious consequences for health. Tobacco leaves absorb chemicals as they grow, and again afterwards, during drying and the rest of the process. Between pesticides, solvents such as toluene, acetone, radioactive gases such as radon and much else besides, some 4,000 substances have been counted, of which 250 are harmful to smokers and 50 are clearly carcinogenic.

Smoking tobacco therefore causes serious respiratory disease, impotence, cardiovascular disorders and, of course, lung cancer. This led manufacturers to consider removing all additives from tobacco and keeping nothing but the raw leaf. That is what is known as additive-free tobacco. There are even organic and environmentally responsible tobaccos.

Does the name tell the whole story?

Going by its name alone, additive-free tobacco is supposed to be pure. That is not quite the case. It still contains nicotine, lead, mercury, toluene and many other chemicals. Manufacturers have simply removed a few additives and kept a great many others.

What the sellers put forward is a narrower claim: some of the additives associated with dependence have been taken out, and there is no added sugar in this type of product, sugar being a frequently processed ingredient known to be highly addictive. Beyond that argument, additive-free tobacco remains tobacco, and the leaf it is made from keeps the substances listed above.