Cigarette butts can be turned into a resource for killing mosquitoes, according to a story in the Economic Times of India citing a new study by an international team of scientists.
This method of pest control was described in the latest issue of the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
The report said: ‘A single treatment with CB [cigarette butt] extracts and silver nanostructures – synthesized using the extract – significantly reduced egg hatchability of anopheles stephensi, the mosquito species that spreads the P.falciparum malaria parasite’.
Low doses of the silver nanostructures were said also to inhibit the growth of a soil bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, the organism, Klebsiella pneumoniae, that causes pneumonia, and Salmonella typhi, that causes typhoid.
Normally, the larvae of malaria mosquitoes are eaten while in water by their predators, small crustaceans called M. aspericornis, and, according to the researchers, the predation efficiency of these crustaceans is not affected by the introduction of CB-synthesized nanoparticles.
Meanwhile, smoke toxicity experiments conducted with adult mosquitoes showed that the use of CB-based mosquito coils led to mortality rates comparable to those obtained with the use of standard coils containing the pesticide permethrin.
The research was carried about by scientists in India, Italy, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.
The global cellulose acetate market is predicted to reach 820.04 thousand tons by 2024, ‘driven by the increasing consumption of cigarettes in developing nations and growth in the textile industry’, according to a press note from Hexa Research issued through PR Newswire.
The ‘growing use of cellulose acetate tow in … cigarettes’ was expected to boost the market for cellulose acetate, the note said.
The Asia Pacific region had dominated the global cellulose acetate market in 2016 with a share of 51.79 percent, and it was expected to maintain its dominance over the forecast period.
The region was projected to continue its dominance due to the prevailing cigarette consumption rate in countries such as Indonesia and China.
At the same time, rising awareness of the ill effects of smoking and growth in demand for electronic cigarettes were expected to slow demand for cellulose acetate tow in North America and Europe.
According to Hexa, cellulose acetate is used in many sectors and applications, such as textiles and apparel, cigarette filters, tapes and labels, photographic films, and extrusion and molding.
But cigarette filters comprise the largest application by segment accounting for about 80 percent of the market in 2016.
The cigarette-filter segment was expected to dominate the market over the forecast period owing to increasing demand for low tar filters worldwide, Hexa estimated.
The EU Commission is keeping a watching brief on the question of ventilation holes in cigarette filters; so, as things stand, nothing will happen before 2021 at the earliest.
In May, an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggested that the US Food and Drug Administration should consider regulating cigarette filter ventilation, up to and including a ban.
It further suggested a research agenda to support such an effort.
A short background to the article said that filter ventilation was adopted in the mid-1960s and was initially equated with making cigarettes safer. But since then, lung adenocarcinoma rates had paradoxically increased relative to other lung cancer subtypes.
Filter ventilation was said to alter tobacco consumption in such a way as to increase smoke toxicants. It was said to allow for elasticity of use so that smokers inhaled more smoke to maintain their nicotine intake. And it was said to cause a false perception of lower health risk from ‘lighter’ smoke.
This led to questions being raised in the EU parliament.
In a preamble to their questions, the Dutch MEP, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, and the Belgian MEP, Frédérique Ries, said that, on May 29, the Dutch national newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ had reported that ventilation holes in cigarettes contributed to an increasing risk of ‘adenocarcinoma’, the most common form of lung cancer.
‘Research from the National Cancer Institute in the US shows a connection between the perforated filter and an increase in this specific type of cancer,’ they said.
‘Based on the findings of the research institute, the ventilation holes in cigarettes could pose a new threat to public health.
‘Moreover, these ventilation holes mislead the measuring equipment that is developed to detect harmful substances in cigarettes.
‘Experts have therefore requested a strict ban on ventilation holes.’
Gerbrandy and Ries went on to ask whether the Commission was aware of the potential health risk of ventilation holes in cigarettes and whether the Commission had taken any action or investigated the issue at an earlier stage?
‘Based on the research findings, does the Commission believe that the European standards for cigarette components and the measurement methods, which are developed to detect harmful substances in cigarettes, should be adapted?,’ they asked.
‘Has the Commission envisaged other steps to further investigate the issue and does the Commission intend to update the current Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) based on the findings of this research?’
In its written answer, the Commission said it was aware of the risk of the use of ventilation holes by tobacco manufacturers to lower measured values of tar, nicotine and CO emissions (TNCO), such as in so-called “light cigarettes”.
‘Branding such cigarettes as “light, “mild” or “ultra-light” had been shown to mislead consumers since they do not have health benefits for smokers. As a result, the Commission banned such descriptors on cigarette packages in 20011. Instead, TNCO were required to be indicated,’ the Commission said.
‘However, as these values were found not to reflect the actual emissions during intended use, the revised Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU2 discontinued TNCO labelling on cigarette packs.
‘In absence of a gold standard and for the purpose of regulatory continuity, the International Organization for Standardization methodology continues to be used for emission measurement. However, Article 4 of the Tobacco Products Directive gives the Commission delegated power to adapt the measurement methods, based on scientific and technical developments or internationally agreed standards.
‘The Commission and the member states have discussed measurement methods in the Expert Group on Tobacco Policy on several occasions. By 2021, the Commission will report on the application of the Tobacco Products Directive. If appropriate and based on the findings of the report, proposals for amending the directive may be foreseen.’
Questions have been raised in the EU parliament about the possible health risks associated with cigarettes whose filters have ventilation holes.
In a preamble to their questions, which will be answered in writing by the Commission, the Dutch MEP, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, and the Belgian MEP, Frédérique Ries, said that, on May 29, the Dutch national newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ had reported that ventilation holes in cigarettes contributed to an increasing risk of ‘adenocarcinoma’, the most common form of lung cancer.
‘Research from the National Cancer Institute in the US shows a connection between the perforated filter and an increase in this specific type of cancer,’ they said.
‘Based on the findings of the research institute, the ventilation holes in cigarettes could pose a new threat to public health.
‘Moreover, these ventilation holes mislead the measuring equipment that is developed to detect harmful substances in cigarettes.
‘Experts have therefore requested a strict ban on ventilation holes.’
Gerbrandy and Ries went on to ask whether the Commission was aware of the potential health risk of ventilation holes in cigarettes and whether the Commission had taken any action or investigated the issue at an earlier stage?
‘Based on the research findings, does the Commission believe that the European standards for cigarette components and the measurement methods, which are developed to detect harmful substances in cigarettes, should be adapted?,’ they asked.
‘Has the Commission envisaged other steps to further investigate the issue and does the Commission intend to update the current Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) based on the findings of this research?’
In May, an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggested that the US Food and Drug Administration should consider regulating cigarette filter ventilation, up to and including a ban.
It further suggested a research agenda to support such an effort.
A short background to the article said that filter ventilation was adopted in the mid-1960s and was initially equated with making cigarettes safer. But since then, lung adenocarcinoma rates had paradoxically increased relative to other lung cancer subtypes.
Filter ventilation was said to alter tobacco consumption in such a way as to increase smoke toxicants. It was said to allow for elasticity of use so that smokers inhaled more smoke to maintain their nicotine intake. And it was said to cause a false perception of lower health risk from ‘lighter’ smoke.
Chemists at the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz, Germany, have developed a technique that reduces the toxic effects of commercially available cigarettes, according to a story at physorg.com.
‘Tobacco smoke contains almost 12,000 different constituents,’ the story said. ‘Among these are narcotoxic substances such as nicotine, blood toxins like cyanide and carbon monoxide, not to mention the various carcinogens. Among these are free oxygen radicals, also known as reactive oxygen species. More than 10 quadrillion (1016) of these molecules are inhaled with every puff on a cigarette.’
The Mainz-based team headed by Professor Wolfgang Tremel said that it had discovered how to lower significantly the levels of these free oxygen radicals and thus markedly reduce the toxicity of cigarette smoke.
Researchers took the underlying idea behind the concept from natural enzymes. In the presence of an enhanced concentration of reactive oxygen species as a result of, for instance, tobacco smoke, uncontrolled cell division and oxidative cell damage can occur. Nature regulates the concentration of radicals by means of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), which plays a central role in the prevention of pathological processes. The naturally occurring enzyme utilizes metals such as copper-zinc, nickel, iron, and manganese as reactive centers that cause oxygen radicals to decompose so that the organism is protected from their aggressive reactive behavior.
The story said the team of chemists in Mainz had been collaborating with a group headed by Professor Jürgen Brieger of the Mainz University Medical Center to determine whether it were possible to integrate functionalized copper hydroxide nanoparticles in cigarette filters and thus reduce levels of free radicals in smoke, hence providing smokers with greater protection against their toxic potential.
Cytotoxicity tests had shown that the cigarette smoke extracts in examined concentrations no longer had a toxic effect on human cells after passing through cigarette filters containing nanoparticles, while there had been increased toxicity in the case of controls in which untreated filters were employed.
The researchers in Mainz had thus been able to demonstrate that imitating natural defense mechanisms with the help of nanoparticles was possible and that a reduction in the toxic effects of various types of smoke could be achieved.
The researchers’ report was published in the scientific journal Nanoscale.
An article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has suggested that the US Food and Drug Administration should consider regulating cigarette filter ventilation, up to and including a ban.
It further suggests a research agenda to support such an effort.
A short background to the article says that Filter ventilation was adopted in the mid-1960s and was initially equated with making cigarettes safer. But since then, lung adenocarcinoma rates had paradoxically increased relative to other lung cancer subtypes.
Filter ventilation is said to alter tobacco consumption in such a way as to increase smoke toxicants. It is said to allow for elasticity of use so that smokers inhale more smoke to maintain their nicotine intake. And it is said to cause a false perception of lower health risk from ‘lighter’ smoke.
Little of this seems particularly new. The problems caused by changes in smoking behavior with the advent of low-delivery cigarettes were identified long ago, though the emphasis on filter ventilation is more recent.
The background says that the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health concluded that changing cigarette designs had caused an increase in lung adenocarcinomas, implicating cigarette filter ventilation that lowers smoking machine tar yields.
The lead author of a recent study has said that research data suggests a clear relationship between the addition of ventilation holes to cigarettes and increasing rates of lung adenocarcinoma seen over the past 20 years.
The study, by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, and five other universities/cancer centers, was the subject of a story in EurekAlert! relayed by the TMA.
The lead author, Professor Peter Shields said that what was especially concerning was that these ventilation holes were still added to virtually all cigarettes smoked today.
Shields said the FDA had a public health obligation to take immediate regulatory action to eliminate the use of ventilation holes on cigarettes.
He said it was a complicated process to enact such regulations, but that there was more than enough data to start the process.
“Such an action would drive down the use and toxicity of conventional cigarettes, and drive smokers to either quit or use less harmful products,” he said.
Stricter rules for tobacco products mean new opportunities for manufacturers of acetate tow and special cigarette filters.
By Stefanie Rossel
When the world’s leading privately held cigarette manufacturer, Philip Morris International, calls for a smoke-free future, you know the outlook for conventional cigarettes is uncertain. In light of ever more stringent restrictions on smoking, increasing taxation and growing competition from cigarette alternatives, such as vapor devices, smoking prevalence in many markets has been falling.
After years of declining cigarette volumes in the U.S., Western Europe and Japan, 2015 marked another watershed: For the first time in 15 years, tobacco sales dropped even in China, which until then had been the world’s top growth market, making up for losses elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, the ongoing deterioration of cigarette sales has also impacted demand for cigarette components, among them acetate tow for filters.
Scott Ballard
According to IHS Markit, world consumption of cellulose acetate filter tow decreased between 2011 and 2016. “The industry utilization for acetate tow has moved down to around 80–85 percent due to a combination of demand drivers, inventory adjustments and new capacity coming online,” says Scott Ballard, vice president and general manager of the fibers business segment at Eastman, a global specialty chemical company based in the U.S.
“Utilization had been at high levels for an extended period of time, and the downward turn happened a bit faster than expected due to the convergence of these multiple factors at once.”
For many years, demand for filtered cigarettes was fueled by requirements for lower tar levels, which led to longer and denser filters, according to Perry Aliotti, vice president of global sales of cellulose derivatives at Celanese.
“Those trends have now peaked, and the China growth engine has begun what we believe will be a slow and steady decline, similar to [that in] the U.S. and Western Europe,” he says. “This demand shift, coupled with the addition of tow capacity in China, has reduced the tow-utilization percentage, despite idling of several assets.” In the coming years, Aliotti expects China’s demand for tow to decline at an annual rate of 1–2 percent. Demand in the rest of the world, he predicts, will drop by 3–4 percent per year.
Ballard points out that the development of the Chinese market has been harder to predict than that of other countries. “China tow purchases certainly moved down due to a more complex set of factors,” he says. “Positive population and filter-specification trends were offset by the typical erosion drivers you see in the rest of the world, as well as some factors unique to China, such as austerity measures and a substantial buildup of tow and cigarette inventory. After some of the drivers that are one-time events get behind us, we’ll get a better estimate of the longer-term trajectory in China.”
The Chinese market situation has also impacted demand for specialty filters. In November 2016, Essentra, a leading manufacturer of cigarette filters, cautioned investors that profit that year would be below expectations, partly due to weak Chinese demand. Patrick Meredith, Essentra’s innovation director, remains confident, though. “Though global demand for filters declined in 2016 due, in part, to de-stocking activity in China, we believe the market for specialty cigarette filters remains an opportunity.”
Filter tow suppliers are adjusting to lower volumes.
Individual needs
Adjusting to lower demand, Eastman in 2015 closed its Workington, U.K., acetate tow factory, which had An annual capacity of 24,000 metric tons. In June 2016, the company sold its share in Primester, a cellulose acetate flake joint venture in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA, to its partner, Solvay, an international chemical and advanced materials company headquartered in Brussels.
“After Eastman’s closure of the Workington plant and the sale of our interest of our acetate flake [joint venture], we are now at the appropriate balance between acetate flake and tow spinning,” says Ballard. “Due to the integration of our remaining assets into our Kingsport site, we really have no good options to further reduce capacity. Eastman’s strategy is to leverage our competency in cellulosics to develop a diverse set of applications to gradually offset the annual declines expected in the cigarette market. We look forward to being able to talk publicly about some of those very soon.”
Ballard stresses that it is vital to work with customers to understand the evolving environment. Suppliers, he says, must be prepared to support their client’s strategies and meet their requirements. “Most of our new tow specifications are driven by the specific needs of specific customers and less about broad market trends,” he says. “More broadly, we continue to see market interest in tow items that support slim and super-slim cigarette brands.” Despite the challenges, Ballard expects acetate tow to remain an important and attractive base business.
Indeed, despite the current slump related to shrinking cigarette consumption, the filter and tow sector still holds a lot of potential, thanks in part to increasingly rigid regulation. “Barring a big surprise like a reduction of bidi popularity in India or an increase in female smoking rates in Asia, we see opportunities coming mostly from changes in regulations,” says Aliotti. “Longer filters to control tar are always on the agenda. Novel filters that selectively remove one or more constituents of concern are a real possibility. Even the new heat-not-burn technology utilizes some filter material, but may require very unique specification changes to deliver the taste they’re seeking.”
Ever-stricter limitations on the marketing and packaging of tobacco products have left the cigarette in many markets as the last medium for tobacco manufacturers to differentiate their brands. As a result, filters are increasingly in the limelight, sporting special properties, shapes or tow colors.
“Filters are the first impression a consumer has when opening a pack,” says Aliotti. “Thus, filter quality, new technology, unique appearance and innovation are all means to communicate a message to the consumer. The market growth of hollow tube filters, which require heavier specialty tow items, is a great example. Although Celanese does not produce finished filters, we are partnering with machinery makers to understand the interaction between our tow specifications and the firmness and efficiency requirements of the equipment. From that work have come several new tow item offerings to meet the industry needs.”
“As stricter regulation is enforced, specialty filters will be ever more important as a point of brand differentiation,” confirms Meredith. “While there are clearly challenges to be overcome, we believe the strength in the specialty filter segments, such as tube and capsule filters, provides a strong basis for optimism. Through engaging in constant research and working closely with our partners on innovation and development, Essentra will continue to ensure that it remains market-relevant and provides the products and services our customers and the end consumers really want.”
The implementation of the revised EU Tobacco Products Directive in May 2016, along with the imminent introduction of plain packaging in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland, has prompted Essentra and other companies to explore new opportunities for product differentiation through specialty filters.
“Essentra has an extensive portfolio of specialty filters, ranging from colored and shaped cellulose acetate threads to filters with one or two capsules for added flavors,” says Meredith. “In particular, we have seen a rise in popularity for both our tube segment and capsule filters due to the consumer interaction they allow, either through the visual cue provided or the customization opportunity the capsule can provide.”
The company’s most recent innovation is in line with that trend: The TwinSense dual-segment filter has capsules in both segments.
As overall demand for cigarette filters declines, suppliers are detecting opportunities in specialty filters.
Booming niches
Another trend that requires a high level of expertise in tow manufacture is the rise of slim and super-slim cigarettes, which have become popular especially in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. “Demand for super-slim and even micro-slim tow items is booming,” says Aliotti. “Leading consumer markets like Korea, Japan and Russia are now being joined by China and many other Asian countries.”
In the 1980s, Celanese pioneered the development of super-slim tow for a Brown & Williamson brand called Capri. “During the research phase, we produced a standard-weight tow band then split it during rod making, using half and throwing half away,” says Aliotti. “We’ve come a long way from that period in our history.”
In 2016, Celanese patented its technology in ultra-high fiber-size, ultra-low total-weight tow items. “We now are offering a myriad of new tows customized to consumer needs for easy airflow and minimal filtration in these small cigarettes,” says Aliotti. “Our technical and manufacturing teams have also made large strides in the uniformity of these products and in their ability to process at high speeds.”
While the trend toward slimmer filters is believed to continue in many markets, simply slim sometimes doesn’t appear to be enough, as Meredith observes. “We are already seeing some markets introduce visually different, slimmer filters that incorporate a capsule as the manufacturers continue to push the boundaries of what can be possible to make their products stand out,” he says.
The acetate tow industry also benefits from the rising popularity of filter-capsule cigarettes. While still dwarfed by overall global cigarette consumption, which stood at 5.6 trillion sticks in 2015, according to Euromonitor data, the niche is growing quickly. In 2015, worldwide sales of filter capsule cigarettes accounted for 64 billion sticks, more than four times the volume in 2011. “Capsule filters place a different set of requirements on tow item selection,” explains Aliotti. “In these structures, tow must make room for the capsule to be firmly centered in the filter, but must still leave a path of easy airflow. Again, Celanese is offering new lower-pressure-drop tow items to meet industry needs. Overall, our portfolio of items has expanded significantly in recent years and will continue to do so.”
