“Keep a low profile”: pesticide residue, additives, and freon use in Australian tobacco manufacturing

Abstract

Objectives: To review the Australian tobacco industry’s knowledge of pesticide residue on Australian tobacco and its policies and practices on resisting calls by tobacco control advocates that consumers should be informed about pesticide residue as well as additives. Methods: Review of previously internal industry documents relevant to pesticides and additives in Australian tobacco located from the Master Settlement Agreement websites. Results: Between 1972 and 1994 Philip Morris Australia was aware that its leaf samples were often contaminated with pesticide residue, sometimes including organochlorine levels described by PM’s European laboratories as being “extremely high”. Consumers were not advised of the contamination nor products withdrawn. From 1981, the industry also resisted calls to declare fully the extent of use and long term safety data on all additives used in their products. They developed standard public responses that were evasive and misleading and, in 2000, implemented voluntary additive disclosure which allowed the companies to continue to avoid disclosure of any ingredient they deemed to be a trade secret. There was extensive use of ozone depleting freon in Australian tobacco manufacturing. Again, the industry kept this information away from consumers. Conclusions: Australian smokers are unable to make informed decisions about smoking because pesticide and additive disclosure remains voluntary. The Australian government should regulate tobacco to require full disclosure including information on the likely health consequences of inhaling pesticide and additive pyrolysis products.

Ensuring smokers are adequately informed: reflections on consumer rights, manufacturer responsibilities, and policy implications

“…31 However, as they are not publicised by the industry or listed on cigarette packs, very few smokers would be aware of these sites, nor capable of understanding the implications of pyrolosis product inhalation. Again, the industry could declare all the ingredients it uses in manufactured tobacco such as ammonia chemistry and any nicotine analogues, 32 explain why it uses them and how they affect addiction, and inform consumers that no information is available about the health effects on humans of inhaling the combusted ingredients it adds to tobacco.…”

“I always thought they were all pure tobacco”: American smokers’ perceptions of “natural” cigarettes and tobacco industry advertising strategies

“…Some tobacco control advocates have speculated that educating smokers about highly unnatural cigarette ingredients, such as pesticides and chemicals used in stripping wood and in removing nail polish, might stimulate smoking cessation 9 10. Understanding why particular smokers regard cigarettes as natural, and how knowledge of unnatural cigarette ingredients changes their perspective could inform this approach to cessation.…”

Rapid and sensitive multiresidue analysis of pesticides in tobacco using low pressure and traditional gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

“…Tobacco is an important commercial crop and pesticides applied during its cultivation may gain entry onto and remain in the tobacco leaves (economic part) even after curing and other post-harvest processing treatments [1][2][3][4]. Public exposure to pesticides through tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) has drawn serious global attention [5,6] and that is why CORESTA had lowered the GRLs for many pesticides in 2013 [7,8].…”