香烟过滤嘴是谁发明的？
Who Made That Cigarette Filter?

“Moist lips are thrilling lips! Keep them soft, alluring.” So proclaimed a 1936 ad for a novelty cigarette, designed for women. At the time, almost all cigarettes were unfiltered. Companies sometimes added special mouthpieces — called beauty tips, often made of cork — for women. After all, what seductress would want to be seen picking tobacco flecks off her tongue? In the early 1950s, when scientific reports showed just how dangerous smoking could be, tobacco companies scrambled to add mouthpieces to most cigarettes, hiring labs at Dow and DuPont to design them. In 1952, the Kent Micronite came equipped with a filter that sucked particles out of the smoke — “Here’s proof you can see. . . . Kent gives greater protection than any other cigarette,” the ad read. But the Micronite contained asbestos fibers that were far more dangerous than tobacco smoke. Philip Morris promised that an antifreeze chemical (diethylene glycol) in the mouthpiece would take “the FEAR out of smoking.” And DuPont scientists tried to trap harmful particles with new fabrics, including Dacron, the same polyester that allowed for wrinkle-free pantsuits.

“湿润的双唇令人兴奋！保持双唇的柔软与诱惑。”1936年一种专为女性设计的新奇香烟的广告这样说。在那时，绝大多数的香烟都没有过滤嘴。香烟公司有时会在香烟上加一个称为“美唇”、通常为软木材质的吸嘴，专供女性烟民使用。毕竟，有哪个诱人的女郎愿意一边抽着烟，一边从舌头上摘烟草末？在20世纪50年代初，科研报告开始揭露抽烟的危害，烟草公司赶紧给大部分香烟加装吸嘴，聘请陶氏化学(Dow)和杜邦(DuPont)的实验室加紧设计。1952年，健牌微粒体(Kent Micronite)制成了一种能够滤除烟气中微粒的过滤嘴——“亲眼所见的明证……比起其他香烟，健牌为你提供更周全的保护，”广告这样写道。但微粒体所使用的石棉纤维材质远比吸烟本身更加危险。菲利普·莫里斯(Philip Morris)承诺说，他们的滤嘴中包含一种防冻剂（二甘醇），能够消灭“吸烟的危害”。而杜邦的研究人员则试图用各种新材料来阻截有害微粒，其中就包括涤纶，这种聚酯纤维材料做的衣服不起皱。

But synthetic fibers in cigarette mouthpieces created new problems. In the 1960s, Philip Morris scientists noticed that mouthpieces shed tiny fibers that could be inhaled into the lungs. The industry called it “fallout.”

香烟滤嘴中的人造纤维材质带来了新问题。在60年代，菲利普·莫里斯的科学家注意到，滤嘴脱落的细小纤维会被吸入肺中。业内称之为“副产品”。

Even when filters weren’t toxic, scientists realized that any material that effectively trapped particles also weakened the cigarette’s kick. Today most manufacturers use a method called ventilation to dilute the smoke: the paper wrapper, perforated from end to end by a constellation of tiny holes, pulls in fresh air. But studies have shown that smokers now drag harder to compensate. “It’s like saying you’re going to have the same bowl of ice cream, but you’re going to eat with a very small spoon,” says Bradford Harris, a Stanford graduate student who reviewed industry documents discussing filter problems.

科学家还发现，就算过滤嘴没有毒性，但只要使用的材料能有效滤除微粒，同时也能消弱香烟的劲道。如今大部分厂商使用所谓“换气”的手段来稀释抽的烟：使用纸质滤嘴，两头打上许多小洞，用来吸入新鲜空气。但研究显示，烟民现在会更用力吸烟来抵销滤嘴的影响。“这就好比你还是吃同样一份冰淇淋，但换成用一个非常小的勺子来吃，”斯坦福大学的研究生布拉德福德·哈里斯(Bradford Harris)说道，他对业界关于过滤嘴问题的各种文献进行过梳理。

Even now filters don’t make cigarettes safe, though many still come wrapped in paper printed to look like cork — a throwback to that carefree era of inhaling, when the big worry was smeared lipstick.

时至今日，过滤嘴并不能把香烟变得更安全，不过有些滤嘴现在包上了一层印有颜色的装饰纸，看起来像是软木——它让人好似回到了那个无忧无虑吸烟的年代，在那时，人们最担心的只是香烟不小心弄花了精心画好的嘴唇。

FILTER FABLES

过滤嘴寓言：

Robert N. Proctor, a professor of the history of science at Stanford, has served as an expert witness against the tobacco industry. Here he talks about the promises made for filters.

罗伯特·N.普洛科特(Robert N. Proctor)是斯坦福大学科学史教授，担任过证明烟草业有罪的专家证人。在这里，他谈到了烟草业关于过滤嘴功效的承诺。

Were filters used to obscure the dangers of cigarettes?

过滤嘴是用来淡化香烟危害的吗？

Oh, yes. Filters are the deadliest fraud in the history of human civilization. They are put on cigarettes to save on the cost of tobacco and to fool people. They don’t filter at all. In the U.S., 400,000 people a year die from cigarettes — and those cigarettes almost all have filters.

是的。过滤嘴是人类文明史上最致命的欺诈。香烟上加上一截滤嘴，既可以节省烟草成本，同时还能愚弄大家。它根本起不了过滤的作用。在美国，每年有40万人死于吸烟——而这些烟几乎都有过滤嘴。

What were some of the most unusual cigarette filters ever designed?

人们曾发明了哪些最不寻常的香烟过滤嘴？

There was one with Parmesan cheese in it. Also, Romano.

有一种过滤嘴，用的是帕玛森干酪。还有一种用了罗马诺干酪。

Why on earth would they put Italian cheeses into filters?

他们为什么要把意大利奶酪搁到过滤嘴里去？

Who knows? Philip Morris had this one project where they would wet the cigarettes and let fungal spores grow, hoping the resulting filaments would have some filtering effect.

谁知道呢？菲利普·莫里斯还曾做过这么一档子事，他们先把香烟弄湿，让真菌孢子生长起来，希望长出来的菌丝能起到点过滤的作用。

本文最初发表于2012年7月8日。

翻译：詹涓