Member

In preparing for this group of amendments, my noble friend Lord Howe and I read a number of papers and articles. We found a paper from the University of Bath—where, incidentally, I taught about 30 years ago—which explained that filters first appeared in the 1860s to protect against tobacco flakes entering the mouth. The modern cellulose acetate cigarette filters were introduced in the 1950s and marketed as a means to reduce smoking-related health risks. Filter perforations were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s to create “light” and “mild” cigarettes that produced lower machine-tested yields of tar and nicotine. The problem, however, is that, when used in the real world, the perforations were often blocked by smokers’ fingers. As other noble Lords have said, the majority of independent research shows that filters do not reduce the harms associated with smoking.