Popular brands of roll-your-own brands of cigarettes cause at least as much harm as the tailor-mades, the Ministry of Health said today.
National director of tobacco control Ashley Bloomfield they had found the five top-selling brands of loose tobacco used in rollies were no safer than the most commonly sold tailor-mades.
In some cases the brands produced more cancer-causing substances, he said. The research measured differences between same-brand tobaccos marketed as regular and those marketed as mild, with and without filters, and compared the findings with the tailor-made cigarette.
"Anyone who thinks rollies are safer is wrong," Dr Bloomfield said.
"There are a lot of myths around tobacco harm, like loose tobacco is more natural with fewer additives so it's less harmful. It's not just wrong, but some rollies are potentially more harmful.
"For most of the brands we tested we found that tobacco companies market as `mild' is just as harmful as `regular' tobacco."
Dr Bloomfield said during testing they found that adding a filter made no difference to the risk of exposure to cancer-causing substances.
The research was based on what was considered a conservative 0.4 grams of tobacco per roll-your-own cigarette, and measured the carcinogen exposures per milligram of nicotine delivered, he said.
"We know that most New Zealand smokers want to quit.
"If rollie smokers needed another reason to quit smoking, this is it.
"My advice is to give yourself the best chance of quitting successfully by getting support and using nicotine replacement therapy."
