Ciggies may contain traces of pigs' blood

Melbourne, Mar 30 (ANI): After lung damage, cancer and, of course, the intolerable stink, here's one more reason to quit smoking - cigarettes may contain pigs' blood, says an Australian academic.

According to University of Sydney Professor in Public Health Simon Chapman, recent Dutch research identified 185 different industrial uses of a pig - including the use of its haemoglobin in cigarette filters, reports News.com.au.

"I think that there would be some particularly devout groups who would find the idea that there were pig products in cigarettes to be very offensive," Prof Chapman said.

He added: "The Jewish community certainly takes these matters extremely seriously and the Islamic community certainly do as well, as would many vegetarians.

"It just puts into hard relief the problem that the tobacco industry is not required to declare the ingredients of cigarettes ... they say 'that's our business' and a trade secret."

The Dutch research found pig haemoglobin - a blood protein - was being used to make cigarette filters more effective at trapping harmful chemicals before they could enter a smoker's lungs.

Prof Chapman said: "If you're a smoker and you're of Islamic or Jewish faith then you'd probably would want to know and there is no way of finding out." (ANI)