Swapping cigarettes for tobacco does not reduce drug consumption – 05/30/2023 – Equilíbrio

Rolling tobacco cigarettes is the smoke of the moment among young people. Alongside hookahs and electronic cigarettes, the popular ‘palheiro’, tobacco smoked in corn straw, has been reinvented and is now successful in universities, bars and tobacconists with tobacco wrapped in tissue paper.

Users believe they consume something natural, less toxic than industrialized cigarettes. The risks of cancer, pulmonary emphysema and chronic bronchitis are even greater, since tobacco cigarettes promote more damage to health than usual, says pulmonologist Paulo Corrêa, coordinator of the Scientific Committee on Tobacco of the SBPT (Brazilian Society of Pneumology and Phthisiology).

Both contain nicotine and produce carbon monoxide and dioxide, as well as benzopyrenes, carcinogenic compounds found in smoke. The ‘tabaquinho’, as it is called, however, contains more nicotine and tar.

“Chemical dependence and abstinence are the same and there is the same difficulty in quitting smoking”, says Jaqueline Scholz, cardiologist, director of the Smoking Treatment Program at InCor (Heart Institute).

All smokers inhale smoke through combustion, but tobacco cigarettes do not contain gunpowder and, because they extinguish more easily, they make the user repeat the burning process. This increases the production of gases and carcinogenic compounds, which are usually inhaled without a filter.

With that off and on, you lose the ability to identify consumption, smoking more than you realize, says the doctor. “They invent an alternative way of using tobacco, a variation on what they are used to, a fad”, she says.

Student Victor, from Curitiba, switched from conventional cigarettes, which he had smoked since he was 13, to tobacco when he entered university in 2018. At 23, he claims to consume less.

“In addition to being natural, I like the curling touch. We also mix it with marijuana, the split, and some with herbs, like mint and chamomile, the kumbayá”, he says.

The act of manually rolling your own cigarette also pleases process analyst Bruna Martins, 26. “It ends up exercising my state of attention and presence”, he points out. For her, it is still satisfying to have the items loose, separated at the beginning, and to see the cigarette rolled up at the end of the making process.

“Now, with tobacco, I smoke socially on the weekends, rarely during the week. On the days I use it, it varies between two or three tobaccos”, the same amount consumed previously.

Among Incor patients participating in the anti-smoking program, most of those who consume tobacco in this way are young people under 30 years of age with a high socioeconomic profile. Most of them associate smoking with marijuana.

The idea of ​​natural, handmade or a “safer” way of smoking, however, has no technical or scientific basis. “This condition does not exist. The tobacco leaf, to make tobacco, requires an industrialized process, it has pesticides in the harvest, tar, preservatives”, points out the cardiologist.

“It’s not the leaf [de tabaco] that is being delivered. Who sells tobacco is the industry itself, which uses artifices to win over young people,” she says.

Marketing strategies to attract consumers can be seen in the attractive packaging and modern design of the tobacco, sold in packs of all sizes, even in bulk. The options are on the internet, tobacconists, gas stations and even newsstands.

Some of the products found in these spaces offer flavor, which can cause even more addiction, according to the SBPT pulmonologist.

The sale of tobacco and accessories used for smoking in Brazil is legalized and regulated by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency). Companies in the sector had a growth of 72% in the last decade, according to data from Sebrae (Brazilian Support Service for Micro and Small Companies).

Sérgio Fontoura, doctor in Health Sciences and professor at the School of Medicine and Life Sciences at PUC-PR (Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná), noticed an increase in consumption during the pandemic. The professional highlights the increased chances of putting one’s health at risk due to the lack of a pattern of the manually created product.

“When you roll your own cigarette you can put in a lot of tobacco and thus absorb even more nicotine and toxic substances.”

Fontoura stresses that cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer risks may be even higher. “The only natural and healthy thing, in this case, is not to smoke.”

According to Inca (National Cancer Institute), smoking and passive exposure to cigarettes are responsible for 428 daily deaths in Brazil and approximately 156,000 annual deaths.

Nicotine dependence is part of the group of mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders and increases the risk for more than 50 chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer.