Okay, I know in all honesty that no cigarette is actually “safe” (but they do taste so “damn good”). But Winston claims they add nothing to the tobacco.
In regards to this site, which mentions the “lack of accelerants often added to cigarette paper to maintain continuous burning”, could Winston still be adding shite to the paper or the filter andf get away with saying “NO ADDITIVES”?
Not a big deal, as I am a pure godly Marlboro man. But still a GQ. Anybody?
jb
As a smoker who’s quit twice, and has recently failed on a third attempt, I’m no expert.
But based on personal experience, Winstons might “smoke slower” and last longer than other brands.
My friend smokes Marlboro Light 100’s. I smoke Winston Light 100s. We take smoke breaks together at work, and even though we light up at the same time, she’ll be finished when I have half a smoke to go. And she smokes hers just as far down as I do.
Thanks to your OP, now I think I know why.
Wouldn’t this make Winstons less “safe”, since I get more puffs (drags, whatever) from mine? That should counteract any “benefit” from fewer additives in the wrapping. ??
(old tune here) Winston’s taste gooood like a cigarette should! (end old tune here)
A cigarette, according to stuff I read before the League Of Antismokeing Fanatics put on their Dok Martins and started goosestepping all over civil rights, truth in advertising and dredging up WW2 propreganda skills, is not as harmful in an untreated state as in a treated one.
Nat Sherman Co. sells Natural smokes in a great many varieties, all chemical free. They range from cigars twisted like ropes to rainbow cigarettes to genuine Virginia tobacco and hair growing, circa Humphrey Bogart wall banging Turkish blends. I’ve tried them, they’re pretty good but expensive.
The basic modern smoke is not all that good because of the following: Saltpeter and various chemicals added to promote smooth, even burning and prevent that once frustrating tendency to go out on you. Assorted flavor enhancers were added to cut down on the rough, harsh taste of strong tobacco. (Prior to menthol being added, most cigarettes were a harsh smoke, specially the stronger brands, even with early filters. Blending various grades and types of tobacco helped ease this and increase the flavor. Later, chemicals were added.)
Wood pulp paper. Prior to WW2, American smokes were wrapped mainly in Japanese rice paper, which is made much differently from wood pulp paper. When the war started, the supply of paper was stopped. After the war, cigarette companies never went back to rice paper but continued to use American pulp. Pulp paper is made with various chemicals, like acids, dumped into it, especially with the ‘cheapening’ of the product after WW2.
Prior to WW2, American pulp paper used a more lengthy process to make paper, which included dumping in large amounts of linen, using an extensive rinsing process and a more lengthy ‘bleaching’ method. That paper, when made into a book, could sit on a shelf for 2 or 300 years and still be strong, clear in tone, and intact.
After WW2, paper companies used a faster process, preferring to turn out a cheaper product which gained them greater profits. This is acid cured pulp paper. Less linen content is used, if any in some cases, the bleaching process uses stronger bleach and is faster. This paper starts to degrade almost as soon as it dries because of the high acid content. That’s why your favorite paper back book, purchased several years ago, is turning yellow and the exposed edges of the pages are becoming brittle and snapping off. The acid is degrading the very fibers of the paper.
How does that tie into smokes? They use the cheapest form for cigarette papers. You get to smoke acid paper.
So, what have we learned today?
In the early years of smoking in the 20th century, the tobacco was strong, burned like a cigar, wrapped in neutral rice paper (Remember edible paper? That was rice paper.) and blended to develop a good taste and decrease the roughness. Blending was a highly developed art in itself, something used only today in expensive cigar manufacture.
Then, chemicals were added to improve burning and flavor and finally, cheap, acid washed paper was used.
The end result: a more harmful smoke than those prior to WW2.
The tobacco companies, in their ever complacent belief of having us smokers hooked, then worked on developing a strain of the leaf with a higher nicotine content, apparently ignoring the early test results of cigarette harm and failing to compare them with records of pre-world war 2 smokers to find out why.
They were producing a cheaper smoke with all of the additives and reaping in greater profits. Switching back would have been expensive. In a way, one can blame the paper industry for contributing to health hazards of smoking by continuing to produce such a low grade pulp paper for the tobacco companies. Rice paper became available years ago, but American pulp paper undercut the cost.
As a final side note here, those who are old enough and can recall smokers during the prewar and war years have said that smokers then did not seem to develop the now prevalent smokers cough noticed in later times to the degree it is noticed today.
In the later 1960s and early 70s, smoking theaters were in vogue. One could get an earful of frequent coughing by smokers.
BTW, sometime after WW2, tobacco companies started producing cheaper cigars and bulk pipe tobacco with chemicals added to improve flavor. I, when trying to learn to smoke a pipe because of the exquisite aroma of the tobacco, found this out from a tobacconist. It was he, who explained to me why cigars ranged from a few cents each to $5.00 apiece, pointed out that the drug store sold pipe tobacco had chemicals added to it to prolong shelf life and the care he had to take with his own blends of tobacco to keep them fresh without adding anything.
I got some good tips to blend my own.
For good pipe tobacco, one adds just a teensy bit of water to keep it moist. For better pipe blends, one dumps a thin slice of fresh cut apple in the humidor - and gets a rich, moist apple scented smoke. For mellowing a harsh strong blend, a jigger of good whiskey is dumped in and the blend allowed to age a few days, then the moisture adjusted by opining the humidor and letting the tobacco dry a little. Flavored pipe tobacco is made by adding various amounts of anything from rich, dark rum to a smooth, mellow bourbon or even fruit slices, especially those soaked in booze for several days.
A good cigar may be dipped quickly in booze, allowed to dry for a day, then smoked for a better flavor. A stale cigar may be restored to a good smoke by the same method.
The current ravaging of anything dealing with tobacco is obscuring the once much appreciated art of blending, curing and flavoring the fragrant leaf.
(Old tune ‘Cherry Bomb’) Back then a smoke was a smoke
and cruel was kru-el… (end old tune)