this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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History Memes

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Ah, now you can finally smoke safely! (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/historymemes@lemmy.world
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[–] bcgm3@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My favorite podcast, Stuff You Should Know, just did an episode on the invention and history of cigarettes, though they didn't mention this little innovation.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Did they mention the fact that filters include chemicals to make them turn brown in the presence of nicotine smoke? The idea is to create the impression that they're actually capturing lots of noxious goo, when in reality they do virtually nothing as far as negative health effects are concerned.

[–] bcgm3@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yes, they did. This is taken from the transcript of that episode, about 8 minutes in:

Chuck: They changed the pH on that filter to purposefully turn it brown as you smoke, so you look and you see, man, look at all that brown stuff that's not getting into my lungs.

Josh: It fooled me for twenty years. Up until a couple of days ago, I had no idea that that was the case.

Chuck: Yeah, just one of the dirty tricks that cigarette manufacturers used and still used.

They also point out how the filter "is doing something" to reduce what makes it into your body, but not much.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

As far as I understand, there is absolutely no clinical evidence that suggests filters do anything as far as reducing the risks of cancer and other smoking-related diseases is concerned. In fact it's suggested that it has the opposite effect since it tends to make people smoke more.

The Cigarette Century is an excellent recent book that also talks about these issues.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What in the conspiracy theory?!

Take a drag. Blow the smoke through a tissue. Report back.

Tell me how your lungs felt smoking filterless vs. filtered. Or shall I start?

[–] KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah. I don't get this claim they do next to nothing.

I smoked for years. Filtered, non filtered, and later "lights". The only difference with filtered and lights is a row or two of holes punched in the filter so you pull in more air.

The difference of smoking a filter vs a non filter though is night and day.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

The claim isn’t that they stop nothing, it’s that they prevent none of the cancer causing stuff.

You’re not actually preventing any health issues, but you sure feel better about having another drag.