Pig’s Blood in Cigarette Filters?

Smokers — especially Jewish and Muslim ones — have another reason to be concerned about the ingredients in their cigarettes, which may include pig’s blood in the filter.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported March 30 that a University of Sydney professor said that recent research from the Netherlands detailed the many industrial uses of pigs, including the use of pig hemoglobin in cigarette filters.

Jews and Muslims may be particularly alarmed at the news, said Professor Simon Chapman.

“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,” said Chapman. “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.”