Suspicion has been raised that there is ammonia in Korean-made cigarettes as was charged in a court case.
There is also evidence that KT&G, the Korean producer of tobacco items, approached multinational companies for support on the accusation that the presence of nicotine and tar in “Light” cigarettes are no less than that of regular products.
These details are contained in a report published by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs Oct. 17, co-written by professors in Seoul and California.
The paper cited contents from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and the Korea Technical Review 2000 by Brown & Williams.
According to the report, the amount of ammonia contained in cigarettes like 88 Light, Simple and This was 0.03-0.11 percent.
Ammonia had a tendency of increasing the potency of nicotine and alkaloid in cigarettes, thus making them more addictive.
The report said KT&G insisted in court in 2011 that its cigarettes do not contain ammonia.