this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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My favorite podcast, Stuff You Should Know, just did an episode on the invention and history of cigarettes, though they didn't mention this little innovation.
Did they mention the fact that filters include chemicals to make them turn brown in the presence of nicotine smoke? The idea is to create the impression that they're actually capturing lots of noxious goo, when in reality they do virtually nothing as far as negative health effects are concerned.
Yes, they did. This is taken from the transcript of that episode, about 8 minutes in:
They also point out how the filter "is doing something" to reduce what makes it into your body, but not much.
As far as I understand, there is absolutely no clinical evidence that suggests filters do anything as far as reducing the risks of cancer and other smoking-related diseases is concerned. In fact it's suggested that it has the opposite effect since it tends to make people smoke more.
The Cigarette Century is an excellent recent book that also talks about these issues.