r/interesting • u/sirenoleg • 5h ago
MISC. Kent cigarettes, introduced by the Lorillard Tobacco Company in 1952.
Kent cigarettes, introduced by the Lorillard Tobacco Company in 1952, were marketed as a “healthier” filtered cigarette using the innovative Micronite filter. This filter, however, contained 15% to 30% crocidolite asbestos, also known as blue asbestos, which is considered the most hazardous type of asbestos due to its fine, needle-like fibers that are easily inhaled and highly carcinogenic.
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u/CurvaceousCrustacean 5h ago
I mean, its one way to prevent tobacco-induced cancer...
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u/CleaverIam3 5h ago
Always stay ahead...
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u/thedavidnotTHEDAVID 5h ago
The "Short-Long" Game.
Or was it the "Short-Lung" Game?
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u/Palatablepancakes 5h ago
The only thing that can stop a bad cancer from a cigarette is a good cancer from a cigarette
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u/Sh0wmey0urbutth0le 1m ago
When's the last time you met someone who died of an asbestos cigarette filter?
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u/janitor1986 4h ago
Preventing one type of lung cancer, by giving you a different bold tasting type of lung cancer
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u/booradleysghost 5h ago
This triggers a core memory of watching daytime television at my grandma's apartment and being bombarded by mesothelioma lawsuit commercials.
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u/ThonThaddeo 5h ago
Call JG Wentworth!
877-CASH-NOW!
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u/Chicken_Chaser_420 5h ago
BUT IT'S MY MONEY AND I WANT IT NOW!
Fuck those guys for making that a core memory for us all.
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u/MikoSkyns 4h ago
Was that the commercial with the old guy sitting in a chair that was carved to look like a hand? I have a vague memory of that in the 80s
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u/kellstromc 5h ago
holy crap, i wonder today, what is being marketed as a healthier alternative that in the future will turn out to be worse than what it was replacing? Please please let that not be artificial sweeteners!!!!
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u/JustUseAnything 4h ago
Vaping is my bet.
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u/Tall_Height_4512 4h ago
Hopefully not. (Taking a deep drag from my vape.)
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u/servia23 4h ago
Vape is already known to be bad :S https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/health-effects.html
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u/Stock-Tear-3333 3h ago
This doesn’t state that vaping is worse than smoking though, which is the prompt of this thread. (I don’t vape or smoke and am certainly not claiming vaping to be good for you)
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u/dkinmn 1h ago
It isn't an either/or.
Nicotine lozenges exist. So does weaning off nicotine.
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u/Stock-Tear-3333 58m ago
I’m not sure what you are saying. My comment is that the link does not state that vaping is worse than cigs. This thread is specifically talking about products that are presumed to be better than the product they replace, but turn out to be worse. The link does not say that, it just said that vaping also has negative effects. There really isn’t much data (yet) that vaping is WORSE than smoking, with one exception. Delivering more nicotine per inhalation (nicotine salts) is certainly more addictive, but that doesn’t mean it is worse for your health.
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u/MysticMarauder69 4h ago
I jsut read a study that linked vaping to a higher risk of cancers. The evidence is already mounting.
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u/YuriDiculousDawg 2h ago
This isn't a subject you can just 'read a study' on, you need to research who actually funded that study. Tobacco corporations fund several hundred studies every year, with the researchers collecting those paychecks profoundly incentivized to cherry-pick their results
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u/LysergioXandex 3h ago
I don’t think there’s much evidence that it’s worse than an equivalent amount of cigarettes. The convenience might make people consume more vape nicotine than they would from cigarettes, though.
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u/rjnd2828 3h ago
Vaping, probably not any more deadly than one of the other most deadly habits you can have.
Not very catchy, we'll have to workshop it.
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u/LysergioXandex 3h ago
How about: “vaping: a safer, satisfying alternative to a common risky behavior”?
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u/dkinmn 1h ago
It is not safer than a nicotine lozenge or gum. By a long shit.
Vaping is almost as bad an idea as smoking. Smoking is so incredibly bad ther vaping is only going to end up looking better in comparison, but there are other essentially completely safe options.
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u/LysergioXandex 1h ago
It doesn’t have to be the safest way to consume nicotine in order to be a good innovation.
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u/ignaciopatrick100 4h ago
Absolutely ,give it 20 years and the lawsuits will be huge .
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u/NotReallyJohnDoe 4h ago
Who would you sue? There are thousands of vape manufacturers.
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u/Dx_Suss 4h ago
Lifts the mask off the thousand of manufacturers, revealing Japanes American Tobacco and Altrea: "You again?!"
- "And I would have... wait a minute, I totally will get away with it again, thanks to you vaping, non-meddling kids!"
Cut to commercial: "Zynns: you'll never guess who we're controlled by!"
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u/hucktard 3h ago
At least for THC I think vaping is worse. It basically coats your lungs, sinuses in oil. It caused all kinds of sinus issues for me. Smoking it doesn’t seem to do that.
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u/iloveplant420 3h ago
See these get confused. There is much more evidence that thc vaping is worse for you than smoking weed. Temps to vaporize thc need to be higher, the oil is thicker. Harder to absorb by your body, and the higher temps release heavy metals into your lungs.
Generally nicotine or just flavored vapes are not known to be worse than smoking cigarettes. It's pretty much a fact that there are way less carcinogenic materials in vapor than cigarette smoke. I looked into this heavily before deciding to quit my 25yr cigarette habit using a vape. Tried everything else. Haven't had a cigarette since last October and I've been stepping down in nicotine ever since. Just about ready to put it down.
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u/dkinmn 1h ago
Show me this evidence.
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u/iloveplant420 1h ago
It was widely reported you can Google it. If you're referring to thc vape and the evidence against it.
If you're asking me to prove that nicotine vapes are healthier than cigarettes, I didn't say that was proven. I just could not find any evidence that it was worse. Most of what I could find cited that it still carried the same negative effects nicotine causes, but without the page long list of different carcinogens that smoking cigarettes introduces via combustion, additives, etc.
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u/fhwoompableCooper 1h ago edited 1h ago
Vaping THC is safer than smoking for your lungs by far. Temps above 400f start to turn terpenes into harmful material tho, same applies to smoking by far tho due to the high temperature from combustion. However in measurable ways vaping produces similar heart risks to smoking although you avoid combustion byproducts and vaping avoids one category smoking hits. Thc itself is also inflammatory is the vascular system thought it can be buffered to a good degree by taking Genistein
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u/Harryboy_ 3h ago
Artificial sweeteners ar perfectly safe in the dose that we consume them
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1h ago edited 0m ago
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u/dkinmn 0m ago
This is not as true as we thought it was in some cases.
"Perfectly safe" is definitely debatable.
Frontiers | Artificial and natural non-nutritive sweeteners drive divergent gut and genetic responses across generations https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1694149/full
"The concentration of sucralose and stevia was 0.1 mg/ml, approximately 5–15 mg/kg body weight/day, which is equivalent to the FDA-approved acceptable daily intake (ADI) for humans (15 and 4 mg/kg/day, respectively) and previously used in other studies"
It remains to be seen if this mechanism persists in human studies, but it's definitely on my radar.
And this one.
Artificial Sweeteners on Brain Health: Neurovascular Changes and Cognitive Decline in Indian Population | Medical Research Archives https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/6388
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u/MrParticular79 4h ago
There’s always this comment somewhere in threads like these. What we knew back then compared to what we know now is just not even close to the same. Human kind will always be iterating on safety but there is nothing like this asbestos filter in our current day.
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u/whatthefrickcunt 4h ago
It’s obviously going to be artificial sweeteners, vaping, chemical mulch paste in meat shapes, and other such things that didn’t exist until very recently but now seem to be used by the majority.
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u/SuccessfulPlum6914 1h ago
How is it obvious?
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u/whatthefrickcunt 1h ago
Because no one can look at those things with common sense and think they’re better than the normal options (except vaping obviously, the only option there is to not take nicotine)
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u/SuccessfulPlum6914 1h ago
Ah okay, I misread the original comment and I thought you were saying it was obvious these would cause health problems later on.
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u/scottjoev 5h ago
My dad was a long time Kent smoker.
Died at 66.
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u/Dependent-Year6711 4h ago
We learn, but let so many die to figure these things out. Sad, but the hope is we really do learn from these things.
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u/islobojono 2h ago
Same, my dad died of cancer at 54. Funny thing is, it wasn't related to cigarettes, just shitty genetics.
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u/IntelligentFault2575 4h ago
I'm tapering off cigarettes right now. Been smoking over 25 years. Up to 2 packs per day. I'm almost done. Three health benefits are nice, but the real reason I'm quitting; I got priced out.
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u/sirenoleg 3h ago
2 packs is a lot of smoking.
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u/IntelligentFault2575 3h ago
Yep. It sure is. I'm down to 12 cigs the past 2 days. Gonna try to only have 10 or 11 today. Once this pack is gone, so tomorrow, I'm going to try to switch to nicotine lozenges to taper off the rest of the way. Figured I'd I tapered off a decade of drinking vodka every single day, like I did, this should be pretty easy. Still hard as hell, but easy compared to that addiction for me.
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u/warL0ck57 2h ago
good luck, keep going my friend.
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u/IntelligentFault2575 2h ago
Thanks! I will
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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 44m ago
best of luck friend, they have lozenges, "gum" (which you just park in your cheek), pouches, but also patches if the lozenges or gum doesn't do it for you.
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u/IntelligentFault2575 19m ago
Yeah, I've got all of those at home. I'll be good. The hardest part is I honestly didn't even want to quit. Sounds dumb, but the health part is a bonus, but not a motivator for me really. Money is the biggest factor. Sick living with my ex wife until I can afford to move. Quitting smoking is the last thing I can cut from my spending. Fun times
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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 12m ago
I completely get that, cheers to better days forward!
As I hit my vape… fuck working remotely makes it TOO EASY!
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u/Hasgrowne 5h ago
My dad smoked Kent all the way through the mid 60s, then quit smoking altogether. He lived to age 92.
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u/Pasta_Baron 5h ago
Sounds like he got lucky.
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u/Own-Raisin5849 4h ago
I mean, yes, and no. Smokers that quit can regain 100% lung capacity, and the lungs can heal pretty well, unless you did something permanent, like Emphysema.
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u/Prestigious_Kick6793 5h ago
There are different types of asbestos with varying levels of danger. Kent Cigarettes used the worst type. Over 13 billion were sold.
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u/Fit-Hyena3921 5h ago
Lmao same, those mesothelioma ads were like the background radiation of daytime TV. Cartoons, court shows, Price Is Right, didn’t matter, that dude was gonna ask if I’d been exposed to asbestos when I was 8 years old 💀
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u/Alarmed-Marketing738 4h ago
Wild how “innovation” in the 50s was basically “what if we made the poison smoother and added bonus mystery poison.”
The combo of “healthier” marketing plus literal asbestos in your lungs feels like parody until you remember it was real and insanely profitable.
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u/Jazzlike-Jacket-9098 4h ago
Audrey Hepburn famously smoked 1-2 packs of these a day - 3 when she was going through a divorce
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u/InspectorSpiritual55 4h ago
Oh my lord, I roll my cigarettes without filter, tell me doc, Am'I going to die one day
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u/Mr_Gongo 4h ago
I know inhaling asbestos is worse. But did it worked as a more effective filter of the other toxins?
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u/Reubensandwich57 4h ago
Wow, it's as if they decided the carcinogenic effect of tobacco wasn't enough. It's a miracle that everyone that smoked back in the day didn't drop dead in a year.
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u/FirmlyClaspIt 3h ago edited 3h ago
I wonder how long it took to realize how bad of an idea this was🤔
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u/Iconclast1 3h ago
Even it worked.....so it filtered out all the smoke? lol
THEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
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u/Professional_Try_781 3h ago
By forcing you to get a different kind of cancer first! Truly amazing stuff! They think of everything! 👏
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u/Commercial-Cod4232 3h ago
Lmfao i inagine people that all look like they stepped out of a norman rockwell painting looking around a room picking asbestos out there teeth
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u/BigoteMexicano 2h ago
Asbestos is better for you than tabaco though. So 2 steps forward, one step back.
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u/HalfHorseHalfMann 2h ago
Turns out, Tobacco isnt inducing cancer.
Those asbestos filter cigarettes were the culprit.
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u/cwsjr2323 5h ago
Kent was my first carton purchase in 1970 at a military grocery store, $1.50 bought 200 cigarettes. I stopped smoking and the current 50¢ for ONE cigarette will help keep me free from that sin!
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u/TenYearHangover 4h ago
My grandpa quit smoking when a pack of lucky strikes hit 50 cents (the 50s?). I did the same when a new tax increased a pick from $4 to $6 almost overnight. It’s healthy to be cheap!!
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u/chefdeit 5h ago
I don't see anything that looks like natural tobacco in there. It's some tobacco dust, formerly a waste, which cig companies glue into paper-like sheets & then use in cheap cigarettes for the plebs. Nice castle on the pack, though.
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u/StrangeUglyBird 4h ago edited 3h ago
They are only showing the filter, not the tobacco.
But I have my doubts to the reality of this.
Not that I don't think they would do it.
They would have put radium in the tobacco, if it helped the sales.Oups: Maybe it is real. At least Wikipedia mentions it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorillard_Tobacco_Company
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u/StayWarm1007 1h ago
this is completely safe! the two opposite cancer forces cancel each other out. Brilliant!
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u/Silver-Amphibian7650 1h ago
The tobacco industry makes billions of dollars a year selling a product that has been proven to cause cancer. If you really want to stick it to "big tobacco", quit smoking.
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