Assessment of Noxious Gases Emission from Herbal and Conventional Cigarettes - A Comparative Study toward Health Promotion

Introduction: Smokers, who wish to stop smoking, are introduced to another equally harmful product, herbal cigarette in order to help with their withdrawal symptoms,which are presented as safe alternatives. Herbal and Conventional brands both release noxious gases whose level are not mentioned on the packaging such as carbon monoxide and nitric oxide. Material and Methods: Smoke of seventeen cigarette brands belonging to conventional and herbal respectively were exposed to the sensor which reports the emission of gases in ppm. This process is being repeated twice in order to reduce the margin of error and eliminate bias. The mean CO and NO values were calculated for the conventional, herbal and different length categories of the cigarette. Results: Herbal cigarettes of 64 mm length emitted 5437 ppm of CO whereas a cigarette of 84 mm length emitted 4042 ppm, and cigarette of 80 mm length produced 5470 ppm of CO. Conclusion: The authors conclude that considering the deleterious effects reported by CO and NO on the human body the multinational tobacco companies must be directed to mention the levels on the packaging. Herbal cigarettes should be validated by a competent authority prior to their use as an alternative to NRT. This health education approach to sensitise towards noxious gas emission can be of great use among beginners and young crowd, also the law can come into place to mention the CO levels on the packages of all the cigarettes in the market either herbal or conventional.