Following the discovery that tobacco contains traces of certain radioactive substances (polonium, radon and cadmium), the Commission has begun discussing whether or not these substances should be added to the list of regulated ingredients.
Until now, the EU has regulated only those substances which have been added to cigarettes, such as nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. The tobacco leaf itself has never been monitored, despite repeated recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicating that it should be.
There is, however, an issue as to how these substances can be regulated. Officials from the Commission recognise that this is a difficult question to answer.
According to Monique Muggli from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, tobacco firms were already aware of the presence of these substances in tobacco, but failed to publish the results of their own studies for fear of waking a ’sleeping giant’.
Polonium 210, just one of the radioactive substances present in the tobacco leaf, has been found to cause lung cancer in 90% of cases. In an article published in The Independent, Muggli suggests that the tobacco industry continues to underplay the health risks associated with tobacco’s radioactive components: “They continue to minimise the recognition of radioactivity in their products in smoking and health litigation.”
In addition to setting limits on nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide levels, the EU executive is putting pressure on the industry to add more visual warnings about the danger of smoking on cigarette packets themselves.
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Euractiv.com EU Unsure About Regulating Polonium in Tobacco
