Muslims and anti-smoking groups are demanding tobacco companies reveal the full details of cigarette ingredients after a Dutch study found that an element in pig's blood is used in the making of cigarette filters.
A book recently published by Dutch author Christien Meindertsma reveals 185 different uses for pig products. Meindertsma, who spent three years researching her book, found that haemoglobin from pig's blood was used in cigarette filters. She also found pig ingredients in shampoo, beer and bullets.
Dr Judith Mackay, senior adviser to the World Lung Foundation and a policy adviser to the World Health Organisation, said haemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells, absorbed some of the cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco smoke.
She said that while pig haemoglobin was found in cigarette filters, tobacco smoke contained more than 4,000 chemicals, at least 50 of which were cancer-causing.
Among them were nicotine, which could also be found in cockroach poison; phenol, also found in toilet bowl disinfectants; and DDT, found in insecticides.
Haq, a Hong Kong Muslim and smoker who started smoking when he was young, was shocked upon being told that cigarette filters contained pig's blood. 'This will be the last pack I smoke,' he said.