Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em - Heavy-Metal Cigarettes (Literally) Hottest New Chinese Import - WSJ

[hatrack]

Looking for a good way to consume a higher daily dose of lead, arsenic, and cadmium? Try smoking Chinese cigarettes. According to a Reuters report, a recent tobacco study conducted by researchers from the Buffalo-based Roswell Park Cancer Institute found that cigarettes produced in China contain three times the amount of heavy metals found in Canadian-manufactured brands.

Researchers analyzed 78 different Chinese cigarette brands, comparing them to Canadian brands because information based on regular testing of Canada’s tobacco is made publicly available by the Canadian public health agency, Health Canada.

Given a string of tainted Chinese products, including food and toys, in recent years, it may come as no surprise that the country’s cigarettes have their flaws, too. But the study, published in the health policy journal Tobacco Control, suggests that the heavy metal content is neither an additive nor a byproduct of shoddy production. In fact, the culprit is China’s soil. “Tobacco like other crops absorbs minerals and other things from the soil, so if the soil has cadmium, lead or arsenic, they will be absorbed into the tobacco,” Reuters cited Geoffrey Fong, a member of the research team and a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, as saying.

Decades of industrial pollution have contaminated much of China’s land, causing concerns far beyond tobacco. Crops such as rice, fruits and vegetables are also cultivated in land that has been exposed to industrial waste and may be passing along excessive levels of metal to consumers. Government advisers warned officials earlier this year that contaminated soil poses a risk to the country’s food security.

EDIT

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/10/07/china%E2%80%99s-heavy-metal-cigarettes/

[progressoid]

1. Mmmm cadmium

[frylock]

2. i'm in flavor country.......

[damntexdem]

3. Well, gotta put those heavy metals somewhere.

And it just didn't work out so well with toys.

;-)

[bananas]

4. Can't wait to find out what shortcuts they've taken with their nuclear power plants

Melamine in pet and baby food, heavy metals in cigarettes, ...

[madokie]

5. I remember back in the '50s

one of my brothers when to Canada to work on some project for boeing, best I remember, anyway he brought back some black cat cigarettes and man o man them things were tough, They made a lucky strike or a camel look like kids toys.

[hatrack]

6. Back in the day (when I smoked) I was living in Japan . . .

"Mild Seven" - hah!

One of those and a cup of coffee and you were ready for Everest.

[txlibdem]

7. Ready for Everest... if you survived it.

I lived in Japan for several years and can definitely back you up on the "Mild Seven" brand. It's like they cut the weeds off the roadside and ground 'em up...

But, that aside, the experience was eye opening. I was regularly discriminated against because I am white. There were a large number of restaurants, shops, and bars that foreigners ("Gaijin") were not welcome at and you heard an earful if you even tried to enter those premises. When walking around the city I was smiled at by one person, scowled at by the next, and verbally insulted by the next. That is the way things are in Japan. I vacationed in Tokyo 5 times and still experienced all those, just to a lesser extent but the smaller cities are far more hostile to foreigners.

Having lived through almost a decade of discrimination gave me a new perspective on what blacks, gays, and asians face here in the USA. I was never a bigot but I realized that some ugly crap was passed along to me from by very bigoted parents. My mom even told me to "have fun over there but don't bring home one of those 'slant eyes'." So I married an asian the first chance I got but that's a family dynamic question I'll not be getting into at this time.

The thing that really made me both happy and a little confused were the beer vending machines on just about every street corner. You could get a 2-liter or 3-liter insulated beer out of the machines - and they regularly sold out during festivals. The hot or cold coffee (in a can) machines were pretty neat - one side of the machine was blue and the other side was red so you didn't even have to read the language to know what you'd get. To their credit, these vending machines were unattended and almost never got robbed or vandalized. The citizens support their police and there is a tiny police station on every block, with between 1 and 4 officers, as well as the larger stations scattered throughout the city.

PS, gotta disagree with the poster who said Canadian cigarettes are not smooth and delicious. I've tried 3 different brands and prefer them to US brands. Before I quit I switched back and forth interchangeably between the Canadian and US brands. Only out of desperation would I resort to a Japanese cig. Sorry, Japan, I prefer your beer and coffee, clothing, vehicles, and a whole lot more but cigs are not your strong suit.