Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em - Heavy-Metal Cigarettes (Literally) Hottest New Chinese Import - WSJ

[hatrack]

Looking for a good way to consume a higher daily dose of lead, arsenic, and cadmium? Try smoking Chinese cigarettes. According to a Reuters report, a recent tobacco study conducted by researchers from the Buffalo-based Roswell Park Cancer Institute found that cigarettes produced in China contain three times the amount of heavy metals found in Canadian-manufactured brands.

Researchers analyzed 78 different Chinese cigarette brands, comparing them to Canadian brands because information based on regular testing of Canada’s tobacco is made publicly available by the Canadian public health agency, Health Canada.

Given a string of tainted Chinese products, including food and toys, in recent years, it may come as no surprise that the country’s cigarettes have their flaws, too. But the study, published in the health policy journal Tobacco Control, suggests that the heavy metal content is neither an additive nor a byproduct of shoddy production. In fact, the culprit is China’s soil. “Tobacco like other crops absorbs minerals and other things from the soil, so if the soil has cadmium, lead or arsenic, they will be absorbed into the tobacco,” Reuters cited Geoffrey Fong, a member of the research team and a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, as saying.

Decades of industrial pollution have contaminated much of China’s land, causing concerns far beyond tobacco. Crops such as rice, fruits and vegetables are also cultivated in land that has been exposed to industrial waste and may be passing along excessive levels of metal to consumers. Government advisers warned officials earlier this year that contaminated soil poses a risk to the country’s food security.

EDIT

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/10/07/china%E2%80%99s-heavy-metal-cigarettes/