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Source: ONE News
Cigarettes may contain traces of pig's blood, an Australian
academic says with a warning that religious groups could find its
undisclosed presence very offensive.
University of Sydney professor Simon Chapman points to recent Dutch
research which identified 185 different industrial uses of a pig -
including the use of its haemoglobin in cigarette filters.
Chapman said the research offered an insight into the otherwise
secretive world of cigarette manufacture, and it was likely to
raise concerns for devout Muslims and Jews.
Religious texts at the core of both of these faiths specifically
ban the consumption of pork.
"I think that there would be some particularly devout groups who
would find the idea that there were pig products in cigarettes to
be very offensive," Chapman said.
"The Jewish community certainly takes these matters extremely
seriously and the Islamic community certainly do as well, as would
many vegetarians.
"It just puts into hard relief the problem that the tobacco
industry is not required to declare the ingredients of cigarettes
... They say: `that's our business` and a trade secret."
The Dutch research found pig haemoglobin - a blood protein - was
being used to make cigarette filters more effective at trapping
harmful chemicals before they could enter a smoker's lungs.
Chapman said that while tobacco companies voluntarily had moved to
list the contents of their products on their websites, they also
noted undisclosed "processing aids ... that are not significantly
present in, and do not functionally affect, the finished
product".
This catch-all term hid from public view an array of chemicals and
other substances used in the making of tobacco products, he
said.
At least one cigarette brand sold in Greece was confirmed as using
pig haemoglobin in its processes, Chapman said, and the status of
smokes sold was unknown.
"If you're a smoker and you're of Islamic or Jewish faith, then you
probably would want to know and there is no way of finding out,"
Chapman said.
British American Tobacco Australia (BATA), just one of the tobacco
companies which sells cigarettes in Australia, said it did not use
pig haemoglobin in its products.
"BATA does not use any animal derivative products in its
manufacture of its products," a spokeswoman said.
She said the company had been providing a detailed list of the its
cigarettes' contents under a voluntary disclosure agreement since
2000.
"This data is posted unmodified on the (Federal Department of
Health and Ageing) website and on our website," she said.
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