BENGALURU: A trend that is catching fire among smokers in the city is the practice of rolling and smoking your own cigarettes. The reasons for ditching your regular packaged cigarettes and resorting to ‘rollies’ or ‘roll-ups’ are varied. Many, however, are not aware of its health implications.
Dr Vijay Agarwal, consultant, medical oncology, HCG Enterprises Ltd, points out that rolled cigarettes are becoming popular and are preferred by younger generation or people with low socio-economic profile as they are perceived to be cheaper, make them appear ‘cool’ and less harmful.
Rollie Rationale
Take Sadananda Ramesh, a photographer – he started using hand-rolled cigarettes when a friend told him that it was less harmful than regular cigarettes. “I was told that it was comparatively better, had lesser chemicals and harmful substances. For example even the paper used in regular cigarettes is quite harmful, however, with regular rolling paper it is not so I have heard,” says Ramesh. He also searched the internet and claimed to have found articles about its less hazardous nature.
Cost cutting is also another major reason for people using roll-ups. Imtiaz Ahmed, a systems engineer at a healthcare firm, was smoking at least five cigarettes a day. Six months back, he switched to roll-ups and he says there has been a drastic decrease in his spending. “I would spend around `500 for a packet of tobacco, another 200 for filters and rolling paper. This one time purchase, would be enough for me for around 45 days. Plus I can roll cigarettes of any sizes to reduce the amount of tobacco,” he says. Imtiyaz would otherwise spend around `70 per day for his regular cigarettes. “It’s `3000 for 45 days as against `700 with the roll-ups,” he adds.
Others like Simran Chadda, a media professional, smoke rolled cigarettes just for its flavour. “I got a taste of rolled tobacco at a party at my friend’s place last November. That’s when I felt I tasted real tobacco and realized what I’ve been missing out on -- the taste of pure tobacco, with no added flavours or chemicals,” says Simran who smokes rolled cigarettes only socially.
Equally, if not, More Harmful
Dr Amod Nayak, consultant and ophthalmologist, at Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, says most have a misbelief about that rollies are more ‘natural’, and are a ‘safer’ option to regular cigarettes. “In factory-made cigarettes, the additives make up about half-a-per cent of the dry weight of the tobacco. But in the rollies, the additives are about 18 per cent of the dry weight. In other words, rollies have about 38 times more additives than factory-made,” he says. He also highlighted a Norwegian study done in 1996 among 26,000 smokers which showed that rollies were associated with higher risks of lung cancer. Other studies also consistently show a two-to-three times increased risk of cancer.
Need Checks
Dr. Sachin Kumar, senior consultant, pulmonary, Sakra World Hospital, says the practice is definitely more harmful as there is no quality control and the youth would add and subtract anything they like according to their preference. “Rolled cigarattes should be completely avoided as this practice, which starts only with rolling of cigarette, leads to adding of substances like marijuana and hashish that makes it more addictive and dangerous,” he adds.
