香烟里究竟有什么？

There are lots of myths about cigarettes: that 'lights' offer protection, for one, or that filters actually filter.

关于香烟，有许多没有事实依据的说法：比如香烟能提高身体的损害修复能力，比如过滤嘴真的有过滤作用，等等。

Yet another myth is that cigarettes are just tobacco rolled in paper. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cigarette is a surprisingly complex artifact, as we now know from the treasure trove of documents released in the course of litigation. The tobacco archives online at legacy.library.ucsf.edu contain some 80 million pages of formerly secret industry documents, almost all of which were unavailable before the Big Tobacco trials of recent years. Access to these archives has improved over time, and all are now full-text searchable, meaning that anyone with an Internet connection can pull up all documents containing expressions such as 'doubt is our product' or 'friends in Congress.'

不过，人们对香烟还有另一个不确切的观点，即它只是一张纸裹着一点烟草而已，而这与事实相去甚远。在法律诉讼的推动下，存放各种保密文件的宝库在向大众慢慢打开。现在，人们通过这些信息了解到，香烟这种人工制品的复杂性令人吃惊。烟草在线资料库legacy.library.ucsf.edu存有8000万页以往处于保密状态的行业文件，其中绝大多数信息在近些年针对烟草巨头的诉讼案之前都无法接触到。随着时间的推移，获取这些资料的方便程度有所改善，现在其文字资料可以搜索得到了；也就是说，任何一个可以上网的人都能看到含有“我们的产品遭到质疑或“国会的朋友们这类字眼的内部文件。

What the documents also reveal is a witches' brew of ingredients used in cigarettes. A 1992 document drawn up by Covington & Burling, a leading tobacco law firm, lists 614 different additives in cigarettes. Here are some of the choicer items, along with poundages added to cigarettes in 1991:

这些文件还揭露了制造香烟所使用的神奇配方。1992年，一家龙头地位的烟草业律师事务所Covington & Burling在一份文件中列出了香烟中含有的614种添加物。下面列出其中一些主要添加物，以及在1991年当年所添加的总重量。

Glycerol 24,910,166

甘油 24,910,166磅

Propylene glycol 22,803,628

丙二醇 22,803,628磅

Cocoa and cocoa shells 9,302,784

可可粉和可可壳粉 9,302,784磅

Licorice 8,140,074

甘草8,140,074磅

Diammonium phosphate 6,065,511

磷酸氢二铵 6,065,511磅

Urea 2,376,000

尿素 2,376,000磅

Menthol 1,564,759

薄荷脑 1,564,759磅

St. John's Bread 979,780

角豆胶 979,780磅

Chocolate 841,405

巧克力 841,405 磅

Potassium sorbate 296,984

山梨酸钾 296,984磅

Prune juice and concentrate 156,093

西梅汁和西梅浓缩液 156,093磅

Levulinic acid 13,413

乙酰丙酸 13,413磅

Angelica Root 5,128

欧白芷根 5,128磅

Nutmeg powder and oil 2,359

肉豆蔻粉和肉豆蔻油 2,359磅

Dandelion root solid extract 2,044

蒲公英根固体提取物 2,044磅

Twenty years later, the exact formulas of cigarettes on the market remain trade secrets, but the companies now publicly disclose the chemicals they add. On their websites, Philip Morris lists more than 100 different additives, Reynolds lists 158 and Lorillard lists 137. Many of these are flavorants; that is presumably why the list includes bergamot oil, fenugreek extract, geranium bourbon oil, ethyl vanillin, tangerine oil, sandalwood and something called 'immortelle extract.'

20年后的今天，香烟的实际成分依然是一个行业秘密，但烟草公司现在公布其在香烟中添加的物质了。在公司网站上，菲利普莫里斯公司(Philip Morris)列举了超过100种添加物，雷诺兹公司(Reynolds)列举了158种，罗瑞拉德公司(Lorillard)列举了137种。这些添加物中很多都是香料，因此出现佛手柑油、葫芦巴提取物、波旁天竺葵油、乙基香草醛、红桔油、檀香油和所谓的“不凋花提取物等名字也就不足为奇了。

Under 'c' alone we find cardamom oil, carob bean extract, cinnamon oil, coffee extract, coriander oil, corn syrup and an oil made from camomile flowers. Gone, apparently, are some that appear in earlier lists: 'civet absolute,' for example, which turns out to be a secretion from the anal gland of the civet cat, and castoreum, a comparable secretion from the Siberian beaver.

仅在以字母“C开头的添加物英文名称中，我们就找到了小豆蔻油、角豆提取物、肉桂油、咖啡提取物、芫荽油、玉米糖浆以及一种甘菊花制成的油，等等。有些在以往列表中出现过的添加物消失不见了，如“灵猫净油，即灵猫的肛腺分泌物，以及海狸香，即西伯利亚海狸的一种类似分泌物。

Some compounds are added for physiological effects. Menthol adds a cool, minty taste, for example, but also has anesthetic effects, helping starters start and smokers get a 'medicinal' feeling. Sugars are added to produce a milder, more inhalable smoke -- but also because, when burned, they generate acetaldehydes, boosting the addictive potency of the resulting smoke.

有些添加在香烟里的化合物是为了实现一些人体生理层面的效果。举例而言，薄荷脑添加物能带来清凉的薄荷口感，但也有麻醉的作用，可以让新烟民很快适应香烟的口味，也让老烟民有一种“药物治疗的感觉。添加的糖分是为了使香烟的口感更柔和，更易吸入；同时，糖分燃烧时会生成乙醛，从而增强香烟的致瘾性。

Nicotine per se isn't typically added, apart from what is already found in precision-bred and blended tobacco leaf, but ammonia is used in abundance -- millions of pounds per year in fact -- to push the nicotine molecule from a 'bound' into a 'free base' state, creating a kind of crack nicotine. Levulinic acid is similarly added to increase the efficiency of nicotine binding in the brain. Cocoa is added for aroma but also for its impact as a bronchodilator: Cocoa contains the alkaloid theobromine, which helps open up the lungs to 'receive' smoke.

尼古丁本身通常并非有意添加，而是存在于精制或混制的烟叶当中，但氨水是一种大范围使用的添加物──每年的使用量多达数百万磅──目的是让尼古丁分子从“束缚态变为“自由态，形成一种类似毒品效果的尼古叮添加乙口丙酸的目的也差不多，是为了增强尼古丁控制脑部的效率。添加可可不但能够增香，而且也有扩张支气管的作用：可可含有可可硷，有助于扩张肺部，“接收香烟的烟雾。

Of course, whenever you smoke a cigarette you are also smoking cigarette paper, which contains bleaches and glues and sometimes burn accelerants (typically sodium or potassium citrates). Chemicals are added to adjust the color of the ash or the optical qualities of the smoke.

当然，你在抽烟时，同时也在吸入烟纸的成分，其含有漂白剂和胶水，有时还含有促进剂（一般为钠或柠檬酸钾）。此外，还有一些加入的化合物是用于调整烟灰的颜色或烟雾的视觉效果的。

The archives are also full of complaints from ordinary smokers finding oddities in their cigarettes: A 1994 Philip Morris document records contamination from rubber bands, machine belts and lubricants, ink and tax stamp solvents, glass fibers and plastics, and color stains 'consistent with blood.' Smokers also complain about finding bugs or worms, sometimes dead, sometimes alive.

烟草资料库中还充斥着来自烟民的投诉，说香烟里有各式各样的奇怪东西：菲利普莫里斯公司一份1994年的文件记录了香烟中含有橡皮筋、机器皮带、机器润滑油、墨水、税印溶剂、玻璃纤维、塑料，以及“血迹一样的色渍等。还有烟民抱怨在香烟里发现虫子和蛆，有时候是死的，而有时候是活的。

Global consumption of cigarettes has now reached six trillion sticks a year, which turns out to be more than 300 million miles of cigarettes -- enough to make a continuous chain from the Earth to the sun and back, with enough left over for a couple of side trips to Mars. On that long journey, smokers deserve to know exactly what's in their cigarettes, and why.

如今，香烟的全球消费量已达到每年六万亿支，加起来的长度超过三亿英里，可以在地球和太阳之间打个来回了，剩下的长度还可以去火星几趟。在这一漫长的旅途中，烟民有权知道香烟里到底有些什么，以及它们为什么在那里。