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No-tar cigarettes

The nicotine you want, the way you want it.
  (+2, -3)
(+2, -3)
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against]

Smokers are hooked on nicotine. Nicotine is not especially dangerous, and there are many products available to deliver it - gum, patches, snorters etc. But why not deliver it the way smokers like - in a smoke?

The no-tar cigarette from BUNGCO contains flakes of our proprietary starch/ cellulose mix, soaked in nicotine and rolled in cigarette paper. The NTCs smell like a burnt bagel and provide all the nicotine of a Lucky Strike - but none of the carcinogenic tar!

The legal folks at BUNGCO are not sure whether the NTC should be postioned as a cigarette, with consequent tax, or as a drug delivery device, with consequent FDA regulations. Either way, we are confident we can undersell the competition.

bungston, Aug 31 2006

nicotine, the poison http://www.nicotinevictims.com/poison.htm
[po, Aug 31 2006]

Material Safety Data Sheet for Nicotine http://msds.ehs.cor...od/a278/m138800.htm
MAY BE FATAL IF ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN/INHALED/INGESTED. EXPOSURE CAN CAUSE LIVER & KIDNEY DAMAGE/ADVERSE REPRODUCTIVE EFFECTS/DELAYED LUNG INJURY/CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM INJURY/RESPIRATORY TRACT IRRITAT ION/DELAYED ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS/NERVOUS SYSTEM INJURY. POSSIBLE CUMULATIVE POISON. [Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 31 2006]

Nicotine may be a cancer promoter http://www.cancer.o...cer_Development.asp
[ldischler, Aug 31 2006]

Helpful opinions! http://www.halfbakery.com/user/bungston
[bungston, Apr 30 2007]

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       I think this rests on a common myth - that cigarettes contain many nasty chemicals, including tar. As I understand, the tar, phenolics, aromatics and other nasties are formed as byproducts of incomplete combustion. I'm not sure that inhaling smoke from smouldering cellulose and starch would be any less harmful.
spidermother, Aug 31 2006
  

       //Nicotine is not especially dangerous//

There's evidence to suggest that nicotine is the most addictive substance known.
angel, Aug 31 2006
  

       Nicotine is harmful - take the tar out, and you'll still die. Witness all the mouth cancer from chewing tobacco.   

       And take it in concentrated form, you'll die right away - it's quite poisonous.
DrCurry, Aug 31 2006
  

       Aren't leaves mostly polysaccarides and cellulose anyway?
Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 31 2006
  

       [Curry, curry, curry]. And you a doctor. It is the compounds in cured tobacco (burnt and unburnt) that cause the cancer, mouth lung and otherwise. Nicorette gum does not cause cancer. Compared to the tar and cured plant compounds, nicotine is mother's milk. The main downside of nicotine is that it causes vasospasm - which can produce a heart attack or gum disease, but which is reversible.
bungston, Aug 31 2006
  

       Nicotine is a cancer promoter, I believe.
ldischler, Aug 31 2006
  

       two friends meet in a pub: "Cigarette?" - "No ta"   

       Only works if spoken out loud in an English accent.   

       Sorry bungston, I'm a big fan, but this one is on a hiding to nowhere.
xenzag, Aug 31 2006
  

       I'm fairly certain that meditation has anticarcinogenic value. Though, maybe that's just because you can't meditate and smoke at the same time.
daseva, Sep 01 2006
  

       //...you can't meditate and smoke at the same time. //   

       You just aren't trying hard enough.
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Sep 01 2006
  

       I was thinking again about this idea. It would be cheaper to make these than conventional cigs, because the tobacco would not need to be cured nor especially flavorful. Green tobacco could be processed for its nicotine direct from the fields.
bungston, Apr 30 2007
  

       //You just aren't trying hard enough.//   

       Do, or do not. There is no tar.
imaginality, Apr 30 2007
  

       [Bungston], I'm guessing that you don't smoke and haven't. I'm also wondering why everyone and his dog feels obliged to chip in with a helpful opinion about a drug they don't know much about. This doesn't seem to happen with more socially acceptable drugs like cocaine. But I digress.   

       There are already perfectly good systems for delivering nicotine as a vapour, and they aren't too bad. But nor are they very popular, because a cigarette is a lot more complex than just some "good" nicotine and some "bad" tar. It's like suggesting that dilute ethanol in distilled water would make a good wine substitute.   

       People are addicted to nicotine (which does, alone, have some adverse effects - but far fewer than any other recreational drug you can name), but they smoke for many reasons in addition to the nicotine. There are complex associations involving the taste and smell of cigarettes, for example, which are largely to do with the "bad" tar. There are also other psychoactive compounds besides nicotine - that's why (for example) cigarettes are pretty effective antidepressants whereas nicotine alone is not.   

       And [Galbinus], while you're up there amongst the capitals, would you care to look at the MSD's for, say, ethanol? Everything kills you, kiddo.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 30 2007
  

       [Max] - 3.8 billion dollars worth of dilute ethanol in distilled water are sold each year. For some people, the wineyness of wine cannot be beat, but for others vodka seems to suffice.   

       All that you say of cigs are true (though I am not certain about other psychoactive compound claim). You omit the psychological effects of the smoking ritual, the hand, the mouth, the lips, the smoke. The obvious smoking that a person is doing when he or she smokes. All are important, all preserved with the above described invention.   

       As re helpful opinions about matters I know nothing about, you can find many more at the above linked page. Only 2 from my dog, though.
bungston, Apr 30 2007
  


 

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