WEBVTT 00:00:00.359 --> 00:00:05.110 Despite decades of debate, denial, and dubious behavior on the part of the tobacco industry 00:00:05.110 --> 00:00:10.219 regarding the potential dangers of cigarettes, it’s now generally agreed upon that smoking 00:00:10.219 --> 00:00:16.260 is bad for your health. Smoking damages nearly every organ in the body, causing strokes, 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:21.340 coronary heart disease, respiratory diseases, a whole slew of cancers, and other deleterious 00:00:21.340 --> 00:00:25.660 effects. And while big tobacco has done its best to feign ignorance since the 00:00:25.660 --> 00:00:31.500 40’s, we now know the answer to “Is smoking bad for you?” is a resounding yes. But a 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:36.880 less-hotly debated question remains: is smoking vegan? 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:44.920 Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. While being vegan 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:49.610 is often associated with a level of health fanaticism approaching daily wheatgrass juice 00:00:49.610 --> 00:00:55.059 enemas and coffee colonics, the truth is, not everyone goes vegan for their health. 00:00:55.059 --> 00:01:00.620 There are junk food vegans, vegans who drink alcohol, and yes, even vegans who smoke. And 00:01:00.620 --> 00:01:08.150 I mean tobacco, not the other thing everyone assumes all vegans smoke… 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:13.150 But can cigarettes be considered vegan? As usual, the answer to this question is more 00:01:13.150 --> 00:01:17.520 complex than it would first appear. I’m going to touch on the various areas of concern, 00:01:17.520 --> 00:01:22.729 but please refer to the blog post for this video for citations and more detailed information. 00:01:22.729 --> 00:01:27.299 The main areas of concern we’ll be addressing are: animal ingredients in cigarettes, 00:01:27.299 --> 00:01:31.950 animals killed in the farming process, animal testing, the environmental impact, second 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:36.590 hand smoke and companion animals child labor and worker toxicity exposure and of 00:01:36.590 --> 00:01:38.369 course a nod to health 00:01:38.369 --> 00:01:42.759 The most basic measure of whether something is vegan or not is whether it contains animals 00:01:42.759 --> 00:01:47.650 or their byproducts. When we combine the myriad of ways we disguise animal byproducts with 00:01:47.650 --> 00:01:53.880 the close to 600 ingredients found in cigarettes, including arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, ammonia, 00:01:53.880 --> 00:01:59.070 acetone and other far less-pronounceable elements, it becomes rather difficult to ascertain if 00:01:59.070 --> 00:02:01.380 anything is animal-derived. 00:02:01.380 --> 00:02:05.900 This issue was brought to a very public head back in 2010 when a press release, light on 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:11.060 the facts but big on the sensation, claimed that cigarettes may contain pig’s blood. 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:15.670 This revelation came from artist Christien Meindertsma’s three-year-long project entitled 00:02:15.670 --> 00:02:23.790 Pig 05049, which tracked and documented all of the ways one pig’s body was used post-slaughter, 00:02:23.790 --> 00:02:26.340 including in cigarette filters. 00:02:26.340 --> 00:02:30.819 Anti-smoking advocate Professor Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney saw this as an 00:02:30.819 --> 00:02:36.209 opportunity to use public outrage, particularly among Jewish, Muslim, vegetarian and vegan 00:02:36.209 --> 00:02:40.810 populations, to bring to light “concerns that ingredients such as additives or processing 00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:45.739 aids used in tobacco products are virtually unregulated and non-transparent.” 00:02:45.739 --> 00:02:50.540 After creating the press release, the story went viral and built into quite a frenzy, 00:02:50.540 --> 00:02:55.069 with Iranian officials calling it a Zionist conspiracy and tobacco companies churning 00:02:55.069 --> 00:03:00.459 out denials left and right. The truth of the matter is far less titalating. In 1997 a Greek 00:03:00.459 --> 00:03:05.300 tobacco company set out to create a healthier cigarette, using pig’s blood in the filter 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:11.129 to mitigate toxins. The resulting BioFilter led the company to second place in the Greek 00:03:11.129 --> 00:03:15.530 tobacco industry, though every scientific study to evaluate these claims found them 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:20.599 to be patently false, and in 2002 Greece finally outlawed their “healthier 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:25.370 smoking” claims. As far as I can tell, the filters are still on the market and I have 00:03:25.370 --> 00:03:28.890 link on the blog post to the company’s website with more information. 00:03:28.890 --> 00:03:33.500 There are also at least two other animal-derived ingredients in cigarettes, which are far more 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:39.370 regularly employed: beeswax and castoreum. Beeswax is rather self-explanatory and you 00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:44.080 can see my video here on the vegan-ness of bee products for more information. Castoreum, 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:49.810 used in cigarettes to lend a sweet, smoky flavor, is another matter entirely. 00:03:49.810 --> 00:03:54.950 I covered the glories of castoruem in one of my very first vegan nuggets ever on What’s 00:03:54.950 --> 00:03:59.930 Really In Your Food, back when both my editing skills and language were a little less polished. 00:03:59.930 --> 00:04:02.810 “If all of that isn’t enough for you, have you ever wondered where artificial raspberry, 00:04:02.810 --> 00:04:09.849 vanilla or strawberry flavors come from? Castoreum! - An extract made from dried, ground up sacs 00:04:09.849 --> 00:04:11.650 located by the anal glands of beavers. 00:04:11.650 --> 00:04:15.819 Yes, we are talking about pouches in the *ss of a beaver. It can be added to foods such 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:20.839 as gums, alcohol, candy and baked goods. Perhaps tossing a beaver’s salad does give you a 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:24.479 nice little vanilla flavor but does that really make it right?” 00:04:24.479 --> 00:04:27.069 [I’ve come a long way…] 00:04:27.069 --> 00:04:31.150 Castoreum is harvested by killing beavers and cutting out their castor glands, making 00:04:31.150 --> 00:04:34.409 it a most definitively un-vegan ingredient. 00:04:34.409 --> 00:04:39.059 So when it comes to animals in your smokes, bees and beaver butts are more likely than 00:04:39.059 --> 00:04:41.330 pigs blood, but just as un-vegan. 00:04:41.330 --> 00:04:45.949 Now I’ll just speak very briefly to the concern of animals killed during tobacco farming 00:04:45.949 --> 00:04:50.379 and harvesting. While we should strive for pesticide-free, sustainable farming, 00:04:50.379 --> 00:04:54.639 with any crop, field animals are going to be unintentionally harmed and killed in the 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:59.969 farming and harvesting process. We have to eat but we don’t have to smoke, so the animals 00:04:59.969 --> 00:05:04.080 killed by tobacco farming are entirely avoidable deaths. 00:05:04.080 --> 00:05:08.550 And now, to the heavy-hitter of the vegan cigarette debate: animal testing. I have a 00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:13.319 four-part video series on animal testing which goes into greater detail about the inefficacy 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:19.059 of animal tests, why we are still conducting them, how they endanger and even kill humans, 00:05:19.059 --> 00:05:23.439 and what viable alternatives exist, which I’ve linked up here and below if you want 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:25.229 to delve deeper into this matter. 00:05:25.229 --> 00:05:30.309 Perhaps the most insane aspect of animal testing as a whole is its complete and utter lack 00:05:30.309 --> 00:05:35.610 of credible results. It’s no secret that our bodies differ greatly from other species, 00:05:35.610 --> 00:05:39.419 and so, it follows, would our reactions to stimuli and toxins. 00:05:39.419 --> 00:05:44.270 In regards to tobacco specifically, Dr. C Ray Greek of Americans for Medical Advancement 00:05:44.270 --> 00:05:49.270 states that “Animal experiments failed notoriously to demonstrate a smoking-cancer connection 00:05:49.270 --> 00:05:53.729 for over half a century...If the greatest killer of our time was promoted by physicians 00:05:53.729 --> 00:05:58.189 based on animal experiments, there is obviously something terminally wrong with the system." 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:04.439 A 2015 paper drawing on more than 50 recent toxicology studies, demonstrated the superiority 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:09.740 of widely available modern, non-animal models over inaccurate animal tests for measuring 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:14.949 the toxicity of tobacco products. In 2012, the U.S. Congress even stated that “there 00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:19.839 is significant scientific evidence that animals are poor models for the testing of tobacco 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:21.439 products used by humans.” 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:26.639 Unlike all medications, tobacco products are not required to undergo animal testing. The 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:31.759 UK, Germany, Belgium and other countries even banned their usage and Canada requires only 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:36.899 in vitro studies, meaning on a cellular level rather than on whole living animals. 00:06:36.899 --> 00:06:41.249 Even the tobacco industry’s own studies have concluded that “in vitro toxicology 00:06:41.249 --> 00:06:46.559 tests can be successfully used both for better understanding the biological activity of cigarette 00:06:46.559 --> 00:06:50.809 smoke … and for guiding the development of cigarettes with reduced toxicity.” 00:06:50.809 --> 00:06:56.089 Despite this fact, tobacco companies, government agencies, the American Cancer Society, National 00:06:56.089 --> 00:07:02.039 Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, among other organization and, yes, even anti-smoking groups 00:07:02.039 --> 00:07:05.069 continue to test cigarettes on animals. 00:07:05.069 --> 00:07:09.179 On this video’s blog post I have links to several articles and studies which catalogue, 00:07:09.179 --> 00:07:13.559 describe, and demonstrate the myriad of horrifying animal tobacco tests, 00:07:13.559 --> 00:07:16.069 but I’m going to just share a few of them with you. 00:07:16.069 --> 00:07:20.999 Perhaps the most visually shocking type of tobacco testing are the direct smoking tests, 00:07:20.999 --> 00:07:26.839 made famous in 1975 by undercover Sunday People reporter Mary Beith in her expose known as 00:07:26.839 --> 00:07:31.099 “The Smoking Beagles.” Beith got a position in an Imperial Chemical Industries laboratory 00:07:31.099 --> 00:07:36.749 where 48 beagles were restrained with straightjackets, placed into what Beith described as “medieval 00:07:36.749 --> 00:07:41.809 stocks” and fitted with tubed masks which forcibly pumped cigarette smoke into their 00:07:41.809 --> 00:07:47.669 lungs day in and day out for up to three years for some of the dogs. Beith reported that, 00:07:47.669 --> 00:07:51.589 “when they have finished their smoking stint the dogs are killed and sent to pathology 00:07:51.589 --> 00:07:55.779 laboratories to be cut up and examined for signs of cancer, liver or heart diseases or 00:07:55.779 --> 00:08:00.270 other possible effects. Some of the dogs have acquired a smoker’s cough judging from the 00:08:00.270 --> 00:08:01.599 sounds I heard.” 00:08:01.599 --> 00:08:07.469 The images Beith captured sparked global outrage, yet only two of the 48 beagles were rescued 00:08:07.469 --> 00:08:12.989 in a technically illegal act of liberation by activist Mike Huskisson and an unnamed 00:08:12.989 --> 00:08:16.179 partner in the early days of the Animal Liberation Front. 00:08:16.179 --> 00:08:20.429 While not garnering the same level of disgust from the public, direct smoking tests on mice 00:08:20.429 --> 00:08:25.709 and rats are just as horrifying. Their entire bodies are crammed into tiny canisters that 00:08:25.709 --> 00:08:31.479 pump smoke directly into their noses for six or more hours a day up to two years. 00:08:31.479 --> 00:08:37.279 Direct smoking tests can also involve tracheotomies. In a 2001 study at the Oregon National Primate 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:43.078 Research Center involving sixty-seven pregnant Rhesus macaque monkeys, half of the monkeys 00:08:43.078 --> 00:08:48.279 had tubes surgically implanted in order to subject them to a continuous flow of nicotine 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:52.779 for the last four months of their pregnancies. Five days before the mothers reached full 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:58.089 term, the experimenters cut out, killed and dissected the fetuses of all 67 mothers. 00:08:58.089 --> 00:09:02.389 These kind of experiments are still being carried out on mice, rats, beagles, monkeys, 00:09:02.389 --> 00:09:06.410 apes, and other sentient beings.They are not required by law, 00:09:06.410 --> 00:09:11.490 have no scientific validity and they even endanger humans with the cross-species application 00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:16.470 of their results, and are all for a product that is not only completely unnecessary but 00:09:16.470 --> 00:09:20.000 also deadly to consumers and damaging to the environment. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:25.339 Speaking to the environmental impact of smoking, around 5.6 trillion cigarette butts are dumped 00:09:25.339 --> 00:09:29.589 into the environment every year. When these butts land in water or on the soil, all of 00:09:29.589 --> 00:09:34.610 the chemicals and carcinogenic ingredients we discussed creates leachates, a toxic soup 00:09:34.610 --> 00:09:36.990 that poisons fish and other wildlife. 00:09:36.990 --> 00:09:40.970 Of course smoking also affects one’s home environment as well. A series of studies at 00:09:40.970 --> 00:09:45.899 Tufts University and Colorado State University found that second hand smoke is just as harmful 00:09:45.899 --> 00:09:50.410 to companion animals as it is humans. Cats living with smokers are twice as likely to 00:09:50.410 --> 00:09:55.029 develop malignant lymphoma, and dogs living with smokers develop cancers of the nose and 00:09:55.029 --> 00:09:59.019 sinus area, all of which are terminal within a year. 00:09:59.019 --> 00:10:03.000 And then there’s the human cost of tobacco farming. Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) is cause 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:07.680 by the constant exposure of workers to the nicotine of the plants, which is absorbed 00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:12.240 through their skin. This is exacerbated in the case of child workers and child labor 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:17.069 is a major issue within America’s tobacco farming. While several countries, including 00:10:17.069 --> 00:10:22.750 major tobacco producers such as Brazil and India, prohibit children under 18 from working 00:10:22.750 --> 00:10:28.649 on tobacco farms, in the US children as young as 12 work in fields for 50 to 60 hours a 00:10:28.649 --> 00:10:33.620 week in extreme heat and with ongoing exposure to pesticides and nicotine. 00:10:33.620 --> 00:10:38.189 And of course, there are the health consequences, which may or may not even be an inherently 00:10:38.189 --> 00:10:43.649 vegan issue, and which is thoroughly documented elsewhere. If you are a smoker and want to 00:10:43.649 --> 00:10:48.180 stop for any reason, please see the blog post for this video where I’ve included a list 00:10:48.180 --> 00:10:50.569 of resources to support you in quitting. 00:10:50.569 --> 00:10:54.829 I hope that this video has been helpful. I’d love to hear your thoughts- do you think smoking 00:10:54.829 --> 00:10:59.800 can be considered vegan? If you were a smoker who went vegan, did you quit? Are you a non-vegan 00:10:59.800 --> 00:11:04.259 smoker wanting to go vegan but overwhelmed that now you have to ditch the cigarettes 00:11:04.259 --> 00:11:10.100 too? [If so, personally, I’d say focus on the meat, dairy, eggs and honey first and 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:14.069 then tackle big tobacco.] The time it to produce this video clocks in 00:11:14.069 --> 00:11:18.120 at around ____ .   If you’d like to help support Bite Size Vegan so I can keep 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:22.680 putting hours to bring you this educational resource, please check out the support links 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:26.980 in the video description below where you can give a one-time donation or receive perks 00:11:26.980 --> 00:11:30.589 and rewards for your support by joining the Nugget Army--the link for that is also in 00:11:30.589 --> 00:11:31.540 the iCard sidebar. 00:11:31.540 --> 00:11:35.180 If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and share it around to help inform 00:11:35.180 --> 00:11:39.149 others. If you’re new here, be sure to hit that big red subscribe button down there for 00:11:39.149 --> 00:11:45.230 more awesome vegan content every Monday, Wednesday, and some Fridays! Now go live vegan, just 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:47.020 say no, and I’ll see you soon. 00:11:47.334 --> 00:11:51.964 In a repeated national survey, doctors in all branches of medicine 00:11:51.994 --> 00:11:57.604 doctors in all parts of the country we asked, "what cigarette do you smoke doctor?" 00:11:57.612 --> 00:12:01.612 Once again, the brand named most was Camel. 00:12:01.612 --> 00:12:08.042 Yes, according to this repeated nationwide survey, more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette. 00:12:08.849 --> 00:12:13.889 Why not change to Camels for the next 30 days and see what a difference it makes 00:12:13.889 --> 00:12:18.335 in your smoking enjoyment. See how Camels agree with your throat. 00:12:18.335 --> 00:12:22.335 See how mild and good tasting a cigarette can be.