Kretek

Kreteks are Indonesian cigarettes made with a complex blend of tobacco, cloves and a flavoring 'sauce'. They are often called clove cigarettes. It is believed that the name kretek, which is the Indonesian word for the cigarettes, comes from the crackling sound the cloves make when they are burned.

Kreteks were originally created by Haji Jamahri, a resident of Kudus, Java, Indonesia, in the early 1880's for medicinal purposes as a way to deliver the eugenol in the cloves to the lungs, as it was thought to help asthma. It cured his chest pains and he started to market his invention to the village, but he died before he could mass market it. M. Nitisemito took his place and began to commercialize the new cigarettes. Today kretek manufacturers employ over 180,000 people in Indonesia, which accounts for 95% of the world's clove market.

Kreteks are by far the most widely-smoked form of tobacco in Indonesia, where about ninety percent of smokers usually smoke kreteks instead of plain tobacco, which are called "whites." In the United States, clove cigarettes are popularly associated with artists and the goth and punk subcultures. Djarum Blacks, a black paper kretek, are often linked with the goth image, leading to a saying, "I'm so goth even my cigarettes are black."

In Indonesia, there are hundreds of kretek manufacturers, including small local makers and major brands. Most of the widely-known international brands, including Bentoel, Djarum, Gudang Garam, Sampoerna, Dji Sam Soe, and Wismilak, originate from Indonesia. A few brands do originate from other countries, such as the United States' Nat Sherman.

Health effects

The health effects above and beyond normal cigarette smoking are unclear. Studies have shown that kreteks contain somewhat less nicotine than normal cigarettes, owing to a portion of the tobacco being replaced by cloves. However, they do contain remarkably high quantities of tar - 35mg to 52.3mg tar per cigarette is typical for Gudang Garams.

Kreteks also tend to be smoked more intensely and for a longer amount of time than normal cigarettes. The venous plasma nicotine and carbon monoxide levels from ten smokers were tested after smoking kreteks and were found to be similar to non-clove brands of cigarettes, such as Marlboro.

Rats were given equal inhalation doses of conventional tobacco cigarettes and kreteks over a short amount of time. Those that had inhaled kreteks did not appear to show worse health effects compared to those that had inhaled conventional cigarettes. The study was repeated with a 14 day exposure time and kreteks again did not appear to produce worse health effects than conventional cigarettes.

The eugenol in clove smoke can cause a numbing of the throat which can diminish gag reflexes, leading researchers to recommend caution for individuals with respiratory infections. There have also been a few cases of aspiration pneumonitis in individuals with normal respiratory tracts possibly because of the diminished gag reflex. Researchers also recommended that people who have an allergy to cloves should also avoid kreteks.

There is no support for the common myth that clove cigarettes will make an individual's lungs bleed any more than a normal cigarette, and claims that kreteks contain fiberglass are an urban legend. The user may cough up a larger amount of blood because of diminished gag reflexes, thus making it appear that cloves caused increased bleeding.

Legal status

In the United States, kreteks have been the subject of legal restrictions and political debate, including a proposed 2004 Senate bill that would have prohibited cigarettes from containing any flavors other than tobacco and menthol, effectively banning kreteks. The bill was motivated by concerns that flavored cigarettes, including kreteks, were especially attractive to children and teenagers. A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicated that kreteks account for ten percent of underage tobacco use. Critics of this bill argued that support of the bill by the large US tobacco maker Phillip Morris, which makes only conventional and menthol cigarettes, indicated that the bill was an attempt to protect the company from competition. Some US states, including Utah and Maryland, have passed laws that prohibit the sale of kreteks in those states.

Copyrights

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Kretek.