Kretek

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A popular brand of kreteks.

Clove cigarettes (Indonesian kretek), are cigarettes made with a complex blend of tobacco, cloves and a flavoring 'sauce'. The Indonesian word kretek is an onomatopoeia for the crackling sound of burning cloves.

Haji Jamahri, a resident of Kudus, Java, created kreteks in the early 1880s as a means to deliver the medicinal eugenol of cloves to the lungs, as it was thought to help asthma. It cured his chest pains and he started to market his invention to the village, but he died before he could mass market it. M. Nitisemito took his place and began to commercialize the new cigarettes. Today kretek manufacturers employ well over 180,000 people in Indonesia, which accounts for 95% of the world's clove market.^{[citation needed]}

Kreteks are by far the most widely-smoked form of cigarettes in Indonesia, where about ninety percent of smokers usually smoke kreteks instead of plain tobacco, which are called "whites".^{[citation needed]} In the United States, clove cigarettes have been associated with artists and the goth, punk, and indie subcultures. Clove cigarettes' are referenced in several songs, such as NoFX's "13 Stiches" off their War on Errorism album, Type O Negative's "Black No. 1" off their Bloody Kisses album, Nerf Herder's "New Wave Girl" off of American Cheese, The Magnetic Fields' "I Don't Want to Get Over You" off of Volume 1 of their album 69 Love Songs, and AFI's "Clove Smoke Catharsis" off of their Black Sails in the Sunset album.

In Indonesia, there are hundreds of kretek manufacturers, including small local makers and major brands. Most of the widely-known international brands, including Bentoel, Djarum, Gudang Garam, Sampoerna, Dji Sam Soe, and Wismilak, originate from Indonesia. Nat Sherman of the United States produces cigarettes branded as "A Touch of Clove", but are arguably not kreteks since they contain clove flavoring in the filter rather than actual clove spice mixed with the tobacco.[1]

Kreteks generally take somewhat longer to smoke than do regular cigarettes of the same size.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Health effects

Djarum cigarettes sold in Europe and South American countries have 10 to 12 mg tar and 1 mg nicotine, as indicated on the pack. This level of [tar] and nicotine are just like the normal cigarettes in the respective country.

The venous plasma nicotine and carbon monoxide levels from ten smokers were tested after smoking kreteks and were found to be similar to non-clove brands of cigarettes, such as Marlboro.[2]

Rats were given equal inhalation doses of conventional tobacco cigarettes and kreteks over a short amount of time. Those that had inhaled kreteks did not appear to show worse health effects compared to those that had inhaled conventional cigarettes.[3] The study was repeated with a 14 day exposure time and kreteks again did not produce worse health effects than conventional cigarettes.[4]

The eugenol in clove smoke can cause a numbing of the throat which can diminish gag reflexes, leading researchers to recommend caution for individuals with respiratory infections.[5] There have also been a few cases of aspiration pneumonitis in individuals with normal respiratory tracts possibly because of the diminished gag reflex. Researchers recommend that people who have an allergy to cloves should avoid kreteks.

There is no support for the common myth that clove cigarettes will make an individual's lungs bleed any more than a normal cigarette, and claims that kreteks contain fiberglass are an urban legend.^{[citation needed]} A heavy user may cough up a larger amount of blood because of diminished gag reflexes, thus making it appear that cloves caused increased bleeding.

[edit] Legal status

In the United States, kreteks have been the subject of legal restrictions and political debate, including a proposed 2004 US Senate bill[6] that would have prohibited cigarettes from having a "characterizing flavor" of certain ingredients other than tobacco and menthol. The bill was motivated by concerns that flavored cigarettes, such as kreteks, were especially attractive to children and teenagers. A study by the U.S. C.D.C.Centers for Disease Control found kreteks account for a relatively small percentage of underage smoking, and its use was declining among high school students.[7] Critics of the bill argued that support of the bill by the large US tobacco maker Philip Morris, which makes only conventional and menthol cigarettes, indicated that the bill was an attempt to protect the company from competition.^{[citation needed]}

Some US states, including Utah, New Mexico and Maryland, have passed laws that prohibit the sale of kreteks in those states.[8] [9]

On 14 March 2005, Philip Morris International announced the purchase of Indonesian tobacco company PT HM Sampoerna after acquiring a 40 per cent stake in Sampoerna from a number of Sampoerna’s principal shareholders. tobaccojournal.com Oct 2006