Document jmjwY3bYpv49bm02kNoL4bvjN

FILE NAME: Smoking (SMOK) DATE: 1953 DOC#: SMOK058 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Consumers' Research Bulletin Cigarettes & Cigarette Filters -November 1953 Wmir- L i n o l e u m ......................................... 5 M en's Wrist W a tc h e s ..............................................10 Photographic Equipment for Christmas .1 5 Anti-Freeze 26 FOR THE HOME Low-Priced Postal S c a l e s ..........................................................17 Blackstone Automatic Washing Machine 19 Fire Extin g u ish ers........................................................................... 23 Humidity in the Hom e...................................................................29 MISCELLANEOUS Food Industry Adopts Sound Principles 9 Batteries and Their Guarantees.......................................... 18 Quackery in Corrosion and Other Fields . . . 21 New Device for Applying Adhesive .2 9 Cigarettes and Filters . . . . . . . . 30 FEATURES O ff the Editor's C h e s t ...........................................................2 The Consumers' Observation P o s t ................................. 3 Brief Cumulative Index ........................................................... . 2 8 Ratings of Motion Pictures . ... 31 Phonograph Records-- Walter F,Gruenirger . . . 35 due to rusting, and the growth of rot, mildew, " and mold will be fostered; damp air may cause marked bodily discomfort, besides. : When the relative humidity is too low, there may be dam age to furniture, as the joints and veneer are apt to come unstuck.. Well-qualified medical opin ion considers that there is no need for artificial humidification in homes, from the health stand point, a position Consumers' Research believes fully warranted in view of the very low relative humidities found outdoors in many climates con sidered fully healthful. The accepted medical \fiew is also that, for normal pe'rsons, a wide range of relative humidities is acceptable, and that comfort is a good guide. (Exceptions to this principle th at arise are strictly in the area of abnormal or disease conditions; the physician, of course, should be the adviser in all such cases.) In very recent experiments, it was found that proper diet protected experimental animals against harmful effects on the skin caused by extremely low humidities; it may therefore; 1 that; deficiencies of health supposedly caused* by low humidity are at times manifestations ofj; some dietary lack or inadequacy. (One'promi- ; f | nent physician suggests that there should be high humidity indoors--45 to. 85 percent,, wit h ^ ~ a minimum perhaps of 25 percent--even if as a | ^ result there should be damage to the structure"Ti|fe? of the house itself. We do not consider that his'r bS; position is supported m the literature and other/ information on this subject, which has b e e n ' i carefully studied by Consumers' Research over a period of severed years.) . From the standpoint of a house whose construction includes wood o r / wallboard, humidity should not be permitted to exceed about 40 percent, in ordinary cold weath er; 30 percent when outdoor temperatures are between 0 and 15; 20 percent in sub-zero weather. These values, intended to protect the \ house as a structure, are regarded by qualified medical men as unobjectionable from the health (physiological) standpoint. ' Cigarettes and Cigarette Filters * A NUMBER of recent issues of the Journal of the American Medical Association have presented discussions of cigarette smoking and its effects, and one, that of July 4, 1953, presents a study of cigarettes, cigarette smoke, and filters done in the chemical laboratory of the Associa tion, a t Chicago. Three brands of cigarettes having-filter tips were tested. Four types of materials were used in the filters: one brand used paper, and the same brand sold at a later date used fiber; filters of the two other brands were asbestos and cotton. The poorest of the filters, using paper, re moved little more nicotine than did the same cigarette without the filter. The best of the filters, one using asbestos laminated with paper, produced a reduction of nicotine content of better than one-half. Cotton filters produced ^ some reduction; one group of samples reduced nicotine by 14 percent, another by 27 percent. With respect to removal of tars, the paper filters produced, as with nicotine, only a moder ate reduction; the asbestos filter produced re ductions of 44 and 55 percent, and the cotton filter reduced the tar content about 20 percent, as it did with nicotine. It was found in respect to one brand which used a paper filter that about the same reduction would have been achieved by leaving tobacco in the cigarette instead of the filter mouthpiece, and indeed the tobacco used as a filter was more effective in removing tars from the mainstream of smoke than the filter was. It was interesting th at two of the types of filters, those of paper and of cotton, produced a reduction of nicotine and tar content which was not considered large enough to be significant; with the asbestos filter, it turned out that a later "improved" model was much less effective than an earlier one. This came about, it is believed, in an effort to make the smoking qualities better by less tight packing of the filter material. In all cases, reports the A.M.A., the proportion of nicotine removed from the smoked portions is' small. The A.M.A.'s article explains how advertisers by using the proper stratagem and calculation can make a modest reduction of nicotine con tent appear to be very significant--which, though hardly news to people who write adver tising copy, may be a surprise to some consumers. On the whole, consumers are wise to assume that when a cigarette advertiser makes a claim which seems to be based on scientific tests there will be more in the measurements and calculations than meets the eye and that, if the actual data upon which the claims are based are not made avail able to the inquirer, it would be just as well not to give weight to the findings. 30 CONSUMERS' RESEARCH BULLETIN NO VEM BER, 1953