EP1482816A2

EP1482816A2 - Carbon monoxide neutralizer card for cigarette smokers

Info

Publication number: EP1482816A2
Application number: EP03792533A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Igor Dragojevic
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-08-26
Filing date: 2003-08-20
Publication date: 2004-12-08
Also published as: HRP20020698A2; WO2004017772A3; AU2003263372A8; HRP20020698B1; WO2004017772A2; AU2003263372A1

Abstract

The CO-Neutralizer Card consists of two basic parts: Permanent magnetic base (B) and metal disc (A). The metal disc is made of 80:20 alloy of copper and zinc crystals and contains a galvanized engraving. With its wave energy the disc is acting on tobacco thus changing its burning pattern, which results in a reduced CO and increased CO2 production

Description

CARBON MONOXIDE NEUTRALIZER CARD FOR CIGARETTE SMOKERS Area covered by the Invention

According to the International Patent Classification (IPC) the Invention can be classified as follows:

A24B15/22 - by application of electric or wave energy or particle radiation A24F47/O0 - Smokers' requisites not provided for elsewhere Technical problem

The technical problem solved by this Invention is reducing the carbon monoxide content in cigarette smoke by 21.5%. State-of-the-art

The problems besetting the tobacco industry - rising prices, advertising restrictions, more and more premises where smoking is prohibited - should in fact encourage product innovation.

The tobacco industry has made great efforts aimed to reduce health risks caused by smoking. Thus last year the Star Scientific introduced the Advance cigarette claimed to be reducing cancer risk. The Advance cigarettes are made of tobacco which undergoes a special manufacturing process lowering the carcinogenic nitrosamine content.

Eclipse is an attempt by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco to produce a less harmful cigarette. When an Eclipse cigarette is lit, the heated air is passing through tobacco, releasing smoke, aroma and nicotine - analogous to a coffeemaker where water is passing through ground coffee, releasing aroma and scent. RJR research allegedly shows that the Eclipse cigarette contains less carcinogenic substances and poses a lesser risk of bronchitis.

BF cigarettes of the European Cigarette Imports are fitted with a biofilter which, as claimed, blocks some chemical reactions which would otherwise reach the smoker's bloodstream.

Liggett Group has decided to introduce next year a cigarette made of GM tobacco, free of both nitrosamine and nicotine, as stated in an article published in the

Business Week of 25 May. As declared by Mr. Bennett Le Bow, Director General of

Vector Group, owner of Liggett, the new cigarette lights, tastes and feels like any other conventional cigarette. Meanwhile Philip Morris is using a new patented slow-burning cigarette paper called PaperSelect to meet the latest New York standards for fire-safe cigarettes introduced last year and to be met by 2003. According to these regulations, cigarettes must be self-extinguishing. Smokers are warned of health hazards on the cigarette package. Smoking- related health hazards may include lung cancer, emphysema, carbon monoxide poisoning, etc. Inhalation of tobacco smoke constricts the air passages and thus inhibits breathing. The tiny hairs in the air passages are crippled in their lung purification function. The smoker's air passages are thereby irritated and covered with thick mucus, which all makes them highly susceptible to emphysema and bronchitis.

Cigarette smoke is one of the worst indoor air pollutants and poses a serious risk to non-smokers. Smoke from the tip of the cigarette contains thrice as much tar and nicotine, as well as benzipyrene and carbon monoxide, and 50 times more ammonia than the smoke actually inhaled through the cigarette filter - warned Dr. Nevenka Cop-Blazic, a psychiatrist and author of many specialized and popular brochures on smoking withdrawal.

TOBACCO SMOKE is a heterogeneous mixture of various gases, uncondensed vapors and liquid aerosols, all kinds of irritants and solid particles. Smoke results from incomplete burning of tobacco at temperatures from 835 to 884°C. It has been found that a cigarette contains about 530 various chemical compounds and elements, most of which are harmful. Toxicologically most relevant tobacco smoke ingredients are:

1. nicotine and its derivatives 2. carbon monoxide

3. irritating gases, vapors and hard particles

4. tar and other carcinogenic and toxic substances.

NICOTINE develops addiction and has a psychoactive effect, which, however, is not as strong as is the case with some drugs. Nicotine constricts blood vessels, increases blood pressure and heart rate and adversely affects the heart itself. Nine out of ten smokers are nicotine-addicts and experience the withdrawal symptoms when they stop smoking. In low doses it is a gentle stimulant, in higher doses it is actually a depressant. A lethal nicotine dose for a newborn or an infant is 4 mg. The lethal dose for an adult varies widely due to the developed nicotine tolerance. However, the total nicotine content in 20 cigarettes, the number daily consumed by an average smoker, is 60 mg, a lethal dose for every adult if taken at one time. CARBON MONOXIDE (CO)

Burning is a chemical process whereby carbon-containing substances bind to oxygen from the air, producing light and heat. The final chemical products are carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂0). The occurrence of CO and other chemical compounds depends on the quantity of oxygen available in the air and the burning temperature.

Tobacco burning in the paper tube, i.e., the cigarette, produces carbon (II) oxide or carbon monoxide (CO). Structural formula :C≡0:

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and poorly soluble gas. It has a high affinity for hemoglobin, thus creating a stable carboxyhemoglobin compound, which is 210 times more stable than its bond to oxygen. And that makes it highly toxic. It is a blood poison which disrupts the normal function of hemoglobin in red blood cells. With the oxygen molecule (0₂) the hemoglobin forms an unstable compound which blood carries from the lungs throughout the body. Unstable as it is, this compound easily disintegrates, which allows the body cells to receive oxygen for metabolism. CO on the other hand, prevents the transport of O₂ , which causes the death of cells and living organisms. Just 0.2 % of CO in the air of a room suffices to cause the loss of consciousness after half an hour and, after three hours, death. The proportion of oxygen by volume in the atmosphere is 21%.

The toxic CO gas invades the smoker's blood very quickly through the big surface of the alveoli and thus reduces oxygen supply to the cells, to the brain, the muscles, the heart and the other organs, disrupting their normal functioning and leading to necrosis.

The modern cigarette design, a paper tube filled with tobacco and filter, can neither reduce nor stop CO production. All kinds of extra filters have not accomplished that either. CO content in the smoker's lungs varies from 20 to 30 ppm,

3-4 ppm in the non-smoker's. CO production from smoking is not only a health risk, it also endangers the environment.

Filters are used to catch soot particles and to absorb tar, but they will let go big quantities of cellulose acetate fibers and the entire CO, C0₂, 0 , N₂, as well as all other gases. TAR reaches the lungs in tiny vapor particles and, like other carcinogenic 100 substances, settles there and may cause chronic bronchitis, lung, throat, oral or bladder cancer. The essence of the Invention:

The Card is the only means of reducing by 21.5% the production of the poisonous CO in the smoker's lungs. The Card is inserted in the cigarette package 105 and after 10-minute action on tobacco its wave energy will change the standard burning conditions and thereby decrease CO and increase CO₂ production.

The Card was tested on MICRO SMOKERLYZER CO MONITOR at the JORDANOVAC Clinic for Pulmonary Diseases in Zagreb, Croatia under the supervision of Dr. Sanja Popovic-Grle and the claimed percentage of CO reduction 110 was proved. The Clinic's experts believe that the test results are amazing and highly promising in terms of the Card's use. Description:

The CO-Neutralizer Card for cigarette smokers consists of two basic parts (A and B). 115 The Card is shown in the attached drawings:

- Figure 1 - front view

- Figure 2 - side view

Part "A" is a metal disc design which on the front side contains 0.1 - 0.2 mm deep engraving. The metal disc material is an alloy of copper and zinc crystals, ratio 120 80 : 20. The engraving is octagonally shaped, with a continuous line running from the outer octagon to the center of the final point. The line is regular and continuously changes direction and accommodation within the octagon until it completely fills the space and ends in a point. The metal disc is wholly galvanized, with nickel, chrome, silver, gold, tin or zinc being applied. 125 Part "B" is a permanent magnetic base, one side of which is covered with a

PVC overlay. The PVC overlay stops the magnetic forces. The other side is free for advertising.

The CO-Neutralizer Card is so assembled that the disc is glued to the magnetic base on the side which shows no magnetic properties, i.e. the one with the 130 PVC overlay. The magnetic base force: 24 mT. Use: The CO-Neutralizer Card is inserted between the cellophane wrapping and package carton, so that Disc "A" is facing the cigarettes. After 10 minutes the CO emission in burning of any cigarette will be reduced by 21.5%. Once a cigarette 135 package is finished, the Card is taken out and inserted in the next package. The Card can last more than three years and process more than 100,000 cigarettes, provided, of course, that it is not destroyed mechanically, chemically or thermally.

The advantage of the Invention is that it reduces CO intake in the lungs and blood of both active and passive smokers, as well as CO emissions into the 140 environment. The Card can also be used in smoking withdrawal therapies.

Claims

PATENT CLAIM The CO-Neutralizer Card for smokers is characterized in that it consists of a permanent magnetic base (B) and a metal disc (A), wholly galvanized, which is an 80:20 copper-zinc alloy, contains an engraving and is attached to the PVC-overlaid magnetic base (B).