Smoking is just one of the many uses for cloves, which come from the tropically grown evergreen clove tree. Cloves are the unopened flower buds picked from the trees and dried. People have used the clove since ancient times to treat or ward off illness, as an antiseptic, a numbing agent, breath freshener, perfume and as food seasoning. Cloves are an increasingly popular smoking alternative, although health and smoking-prevention organizations warn that it is a dangerous practice.
Exotic Smoking Alternative
The American Cancer Society lists kreteks as one of the "exotic" smoking alternatives gaining in popularity, especially with young people. The Indonesian islands are the major importers of these flavored cigarettes, which contain 60 to 70 percent tobacco and 30 to 40 percent ground or shredded cloves, clove oil and other additives. The ACS notes the danger of a product that appeals to people looking for something different, safer and natural. However, the tobacco content in clove cigarettes, and the chemicals in cloves, makes clove cigarettes a dangerous product.
Lung Cancer
Many people believe that clove cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes and others are unaware that clove cigarettes contain tobacco. The American Cancer Society warns that smokers of kreteks receive more nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide than smokers of regular cigarettes. Clove cigarettes are tobacco products and, as such, are addictive and cancer-causing. Researchers have found an association between lung cancer and the chemicals in cloves.
Respiratory Conditions
Smoking clove cigarettes increases your risk of developing acute lung injury, the symptoms of which include fluid in your lungs, decreased oxygen and capillary leakage. People with asthma who smoke kreteks have a higher risk of lung damage. If you smoke kreteks regularly, you have more than 13 times the risk of smokers of regular cigarettes of developing airflow obstruction, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other conditions associated with regular smokers of clove cigarettes are pneumonia, bronchitis, respiratory infections and coughing up blood.
Youth Appeal
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, flavored cigarettes are dangerous because of their appeal to young people, and those who might not otherwise try tobacco. In September 2009, as part of efforts to reduce the number of children who start smoking and become addicted to tobacco, the FDA banned certain flavored cigarettes, including those that contain cloves. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act bans the manufacture, importing or selling of cigarettes, and the filters or paper, that contain herbs, spices and other additives that flavor the tobacco product or smoke.
