![]() The short answer is “no,” but a new study conducted by Penn Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS) researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication found that current and former smokers do erroneously believe that Natural American Spirit (NAS) cigarettes, which the company markets as “organic” and “additive-free,” are healthier than other cigarettes. But what does it mean when the word “organic” is on a cigarette pack? Is smoking an organic cigarette better for your health? Consumers generally believe that organic food is healthier, and in many cases they’re right. ![]() In the supermarket, foods labeled “organic” carry premium prices. LC−MS/MS was carried out in the Analytical Biochemistry Shared Resource of the Masonic Cancer Center, supported by the National Cancer Institute.Photo Credit: Francesco Paggiaro / Pexels This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Tobacco Products of the Food and Drug Administration, and by a Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences supplement from the National Cancer Institute. “I hope the results of this study can reach at least some smokers of Natural American Spirit cigarettes and help in correcting the misperception that these cigarettes are somehow healthier than other brands.” “While some of the misleading descriptors that have been used in advertisements of Natural American Spirit cigarettes are no longer permitted, the use of words such as ‘organic’ and ‘tobacco and water,’ along with the ‘Natural’ in the name of the brand is still misleading,” says Stepanov. “However, this study clearly demonstrates that there are no major differences between Natural American Spirit and other brands that could be attributed to ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ qualities.” “Smokers smoke cigarettes differently from the laboratory machines,” says Stepanov. Stepanov emphasized that this study only compared machine-generated laboratory data for Natural American Spirit and other brands. “We also learned that there is more tobacco per cigarette and it takes more puffs to finish Natural American Spirit cigarettes than other king-size brands, which means a smoker can inhale more smoke from each cigarette.” “The similarities between the cancer-causing chemicals in various Natural American Spirit cigarettes are consistent with the knowledge that harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke come from the tobacco plant itself or from the combustion process, and do not depend on tobacco being ‘organic’ or ‘natural,’” says Aleksandra Alcheva, a School of Public Health graduate student and study co-author.
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