Bio-filter beckons

sekap, the Greek cooperative cigarette manufacturing company, has developed a cigarette filter which it claims will drastically reduce adverse effects of smoking.

George Delikonstantinos, one of the three researchers who invented the benign filter, said, "Smokers who use normal filters retain 1.75 ml of tar in their lungs. The bio-filter reduces this amount by 40 times, as was shown in experiments conducted on student smokers."

The filter, which hit shop shelves in February, looks like normal filters although it is slightly costlier. Reportedly, experiments with the bio-filter seem promising enough in screening out carcinogens that cannot be stopped by ordinary filters. The Greek researcher said, "The bio-filter acts as an artificial lung which retains all toxic substances and sends non-toxic smoke to the lungs."