Popular cigarettes found to contain toxic metals: Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic and Aluminum

Thursday, March 05, 2015
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Tags: cigarettes, heavy metals, lab test results

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(NaturalNews) Today I'm publishing the laboratory test results that document the levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic and aluminum found in popular cigarettes and cigarette rolling paper. The good news is that the concentrations of metals are very low in the rolling paper.

Below, a series of graphics show the cigarette heavy metals lab testing results as well as microscopy photos of cigarette materials and cigarette filters. (I conducted the ICP-MS research and took the microscopy photos myself.)

BACKGROUND: As Natural News readers know, I'm the science lab director of the Natural News Forensic Food Lab, where we run an Agilent 7700x ICP-MS instrument capable of detecting heavy metals down to parts per billion concentrations. I was the first researcher in the world to document the heavy metals capturing potential of common foods, and the first to document the heavy metal tungsten in rice protein products. I am the developer and patent holder of Cesium Eliminator, a dietary supplement that binds with radioactive isotopes, and Heavy Metals Defense, a dietary supplement that binds with toxic heavy metals during digestion. I am also the creator of the Low Heavy Metals Verified standard that we use to validate the cleanliness of all the products sold at the Natural News Store

The Natural News Forensic Food Lab operates under ISO 17025 quality rules, with international accreditation pending.

Over the last year or so, I've used the instrument to test protein powders, nutritional supplements, medicinal herbs, fast food and much more. But now, we're putting this technology to a different use and testing cigarettes, tattoo ink, skin whiteners, cosmetics and other consumable products to determine their heavy metal concentrations.

Heavy metals lab test results for American Spirit, Marlboro, Pall Mall, Camel and Winston cigarettes

The big story here is that there is significant lead in all the cigarettes we tested.

In fact, there's more lead in cigarettes than the lead we found in most brands of rice protein in our widely-publicized research from last year. This is especially concerning because cigarette smoke is inhaled into the lungs, providing a direct pathway into the bloodstream.

Our tests focused on the heavy metals concentrations of the tobacco leaf in each cigarette. We were not able to account for the ability of cigarette filters to remove toxic heavy metals from the inhalation stream, but it is logical and reasonable to assume that cigarette filters may remove some portion of heavy metals from the inhaled smoke. We are actively looking for a way to test the concentration of heavy metals removed by filtration vs. those that are inhaled by the smoker.

The numbers you see here represent the concentrations of heavy metals in the cigarette itself, and these numbers are accurate within plus or minus 10%.

(See microscopy photos below...)

Lead found in popular cigarettes and rolling papers

Numbers represent parts per billion. Divide by 1,000 to get parts per million.

American Spirit (Mellow) 308
American Spirit (Full Bodied) 466
Camel (Filtered) 606
Camel (Blue) 415
Pall Mall (Red) 511
Pall Mall (Blue) 526
Marlboro (Filtered) 496
Marlboro (Gold) 483
Newport 439
Winston (Gold) 421
Winston (Red) 472

Rolling papers: (Notice how these numbers are significantly lower? Rolling papers are significantly cleaner than cigarettes.)
Bob Marley Hemp Rolling Papers 189
300's Raw Hemp Rolling Paper 142
Top Rolling Papers 76

Cadmium found in popular cigarettes and rolling papers

Numbers represent parts per billion. Divide by 1,000 to get parts per million.

American Spirit (Mellow) 1086
American Spirit (Full Bodied) 1432
Camel (Filtered) 1152
Camel (Blue) 998
Pall Mall (Red) 917
Pall Mall (Blue) 927
Marlboro (Filtered) 935
Marlboro (Gold) 1041
Newport 1032
Winston (Gold) 966
Winston (Red) 1089

Rolling papers: (Notice how these numbers are significantly lower? Rolling papers are significantly cleaner than cigarettes.)
Bob Marley Hemp Rolling Papers 4
300's Raw Hemp Rolling Paper 14
Top Rolling Papers 22

Arsenic found in popular cigarettes and rolling papers

Numbers represent parts per billion. Divide by 1,000 to get parts per million.

American Spirit (Mellow) 226
American Spirit (Full Bodied) 337
Camel (Filtered) 294
Camel (Blue) 249
Pall Mall (Red) 339
Pall Mall (Blue) 222
Marlboro (Filtered) 321
Marlboro (Gold) 329
Newport 238
Winston (Gold) 174
Winston (Red) 216

Rolling papers: (Notice how these numbers are significantly lower? Rolling papers are significantly cleaner than cigarettes.)
Bob Marley Hemp Rolling Papers 0
300's Raw Hemp Rolling Paper 15
Top Rolling Papers 43

Aluminum found in popular cigarettes and rolling papers

Numbers represent parts per billion. Divide by 1,000 to get parts per million.

American Spirit (Mellow) 125717
American Spirit (Full Bodied) 246938
Camel (Filtered) 257907
Camel (Blue) 210734
Pall Mall (Red) 249931
Pall Mall (Blue) 228245
Marlboro (Filtered) 227508
Marlboro (Gold) 230400
Newport 225380
Winston (Gold) 186413
Winston (Red) 244375

Rolling papers: (Notice how these numbers are significantly lower? Rolling papers are significantly cleaner than cigarettes.)
Bob Marley Hemp Rolling Papers 68870
300's Raw Hemp Rolling Paper 14384
Top Rolling Papers 37676

Photos of cigarette tobacco

American Spirit cigarettes:



American Spirit tobacco at 50X



American Spirit tobacco at 200X



Marlboro cigarettes:



Marlboro tobacco at 20X:



Marlboro tobacco at 50X:



Marlboro tobacco at 100X:



Marlboro tobacco at 200X:



Bob Marley cigarette paper:



Bob Marley cigarette paper at 50X:



Bob Marley cigarette paper at 200X: (looks pretty amazing!)



By comparison, here's a microscopy photo of a common paper napkin:



And a piece of toilet paper:



Marlboro cigarette filter at 20X:



Marlboro cigarette filter at 50X:



Marlboro cigarette filter at 100X:



Marlboro cigarette filter at 200X:

Lot numbers of cigarettes tested

American Spirit (Mellow) 8141
American Spirit (Full Bodied) 345135
Camel (Filtered) 2AK3HX1
Camel (Blue) 42A4JE9
Pall Mall (Red) 4FH3ZI0
Pall Mall (Blue) 31H3TA4
Marlboro (Filtered) V280X31B1
Marlboro (Gold) V013Y41A3
Newport 4B28
Winston (Gold) FSCA424A4XP8
Winston (Red) FSCK32Fk3ZM1

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Learn more:
Natural News Forensic Food Lab
Forensic Food Lab videos with the Health Ranger
The Consumer Wellness Center
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