How Does Filter on a Cigarette Work? : Filters intended for cigarettes are designed specifically to absorb vapors and to amass particulate smoke components. These cigarette filters also prevent tobacco entering a smoker’s mouth and double up as a mouthpiece that will not collapse when the cigarette is smoked. This article discuss about to know how does filter on a cigarette work?
Components of Cigarette Filters
A plug or a cap, with which the majority of cigarette filters are made, is composed of cellulose acetate – a plastic. The balance are made from papers and rayon. The cellulose acetate tow fibers are finer than even sewing thread. They are white in color and packed tightly together to create a filter. At first glance they look similar to cotton.
History of Cigarette Filters
In the 1950s there were numerous medical studies being conducted that conclusively linked smoking and lung cancer. The reaction from the public health offices, social awareness agencies and the community led to the cigarette manufacturers response of mass-marketing the filter-tip cigarette. The initiative behind the filter was to screen out tar and nicotine to make cigarette smoking safer. This innovation in the cigarette industry led to the filter tipped cigarettes dominating the market by the 1960s even as they continued to be a specialty item.
Public demands for healthier cigarettes were met by the manufacturers who changed the filter’s structure and materials. Aggressive marketing strategies for upward sales led filter cigarette manufacturers to make competing claims with products of other manufacturers about how low tar and nicotine levels are in their brands.
Are Cigarette Filters Effective?
The majority of cigarettes filters bear ventilation holes punched around the circumference of the filter tip. The ordinary cigarettes might have one ring of ventilation holes, but light and ultra-light cigarettes might boast two or more rings. These tiny holes can be viewed in bright light by holding the unrolled paper up. The property of these ventilation holes is to allow enough fresh air into the smoke. So these cigarettes test low in tar and nicotine levels when smoked, if they are uncovered by the user.
If smokers’ fingers or lips cover some of these holes as they puff, this action can result in giving them much higher doses of tar and nicotine than advertised. Critics of the tobacco industry slam this feature by arguing that the holes create a flexible dosing system allowing addicted smokers to maintain the tar and nicotine levels they crave while falsely believing they are inhaling lower, safer doses.
The problem with cigarette filters is that they might not really produce the intended effect of reduced tar and nicotine levels, if the ventilation holes are covered. Nicotine addiction has another alternate mechanism to cigarette filters: receiving it from nicotine gum and patches, which at least eliminates the tar.