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Playing with Fire: With candylike flavors, imported bidis are sweetly sinister
Monday, August 16, 1999
By ERIKA HAYASAKI
They come in an assortment of mouth-watering flavors including strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, cherry, raspberry and mango.
Sounds like jelly beans, but they're cigarettes from India that appear to be natural, herbal and safe. But these non-filtered smokes -- called bidis -- are far from safe.
They contain more cancer-causing agents than regular cigarettes, according to Samira Asma, an epidemiologist for the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Because of their candylike flavors and cheap prices, it's 18- to 21-year-olds who flock to smoke shops to buy them. And under-agers are getting their hands on them, too.
"It was different, better than cigarettes. It was sweeter. I'll smoke them again," he said.
Andy Lin, owner of Tom's University Smoke Shop in the University District, said the bidi phenomenon is a fad.
"There have always been bidis, but three or four years ago they suddenly became very popular," he said. "There were only three or four brands; now there's a whole bunch."
The growing trend is attracting kids. A survey in San Francisco last year found 58 percent of students at four high schools had tried them.
"Students are definitely aware of them," said Michael Leon-Guerrero, health educator for the King County Public Health Tobacco Prevention Program. "We do health fairs and community outreach programs and it comes up. They want to know about bidis."
From the downtown streets of Seattle to suburban Renton and Lynnwood, most teens and young adults interviewed had either tried bidis or had friends who tried them.
"I tried it a year ago through some friends," said Heather Shanor, a 21-year-old department store employee at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila. "My friends smoked them instead of cigarettes. They smelled better and didn't stink like most cigarettes. I think that's why girls smoke them."
While bidis contain less tobacco than regular cigarettes, they have three times more nicotine and five times more tar, according to Asma, the CDC epidemiologist.
Health effects may include respiratory problems, mouth, throat, stomach and lung cancer, heart disease and nicotine addiction, Asma said.
"A lot of young people and young adults tend to look at it as a natural form of tobacco," she said. "They think it is healthy. It has an earthy feel."
Bearing a striking resemblance to marijuana joints, bidis are skinny cigarettes made with pure tobacco that is sun-dried and wrapped in a tendu leaf, a plant grown in India's forests. The leaf is more dense than paper and smokers must inhale deeper and more frequently to keep a bidi cigarette lit.
Bidi smoke has a pleasant, scented fragrance, much different from the odor of regular cigarette smoke. And some say the taste is better.
"It tastes like incense," said Trina Kuan, 21, who puffed on a strawberry bidi in front of Southcenter Mall.
Bidis have been imported to the United States for the past 40 years. Known as the "poor man's cigarette," they account for nearly 40 percent of tobacco consumption in India.
Bidis are hand-rolled by women and children and, according to a 1996 report by Human Rights Watch of New York, Indian bidi manufacturers employ nearly 325,000 children as underpaid "bondage slaves."
The cigarettes come in bright-colored, cone-shaped packages of 20 that sell for about $2.50 in this country, about a dollar less than a regular pack of smokes.
Convenience stores, specialty shops, smoke shops, herbal stores and Web sites sell bidis. Some grocery stores and gas stations carry them, too.
Eric LeLand, owner of the Beverage Mart in Renton, said he started carrying strawberry bidis, the most popular flavor, about three years ago.
"Enough people started asking for them," he said. "I carried them off and on. They're mostly sold to 18- to 21-year-olds."
Younger patrons try to buy bidis, LeLand said, but he won't allow it.
Lin said bidi sales in his University District tobacco shop have declined lately because they have become available in many places.
"Before, it was crazy," he said. "(But) not too many are sold here right now, probably because there is more competition. They are easier to get. Three years ago they were only sold in smoke shops. Now even gas stations sell them."
Anna Bruett, a 17-year-old Redmond High School student and a member of the Teen Coalition Against Tobacco for the King County Public Health Department, said she's afraid kids will become hooked on cigarettes at an early age after smoking bidis.
"Once you hit 16 you are more interested in the adult way to smoke, like Camel Lights and Marlboros," Bruett said. "(Bidis) will appeal to younger teens who are still in the candy phase. They will naturally move up to other products and get hooked for life until they die."
Michael, a 17-year-old from Seattle who asked his last name not be used, said all his friends smoke bidis.
"Cigarettes are disgusting and bidis are not as bad because of the strawberry smell and taste," Michael said. "It looks like weed but it's not, so more younger kids smoke them than older people."
Seven out of 10 bidi packages do not have a surgeon general's warning on them, according to a study by the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center in San Francisco.
Michael Ostheimer, a staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., said bidi packages are required to have health warnings on them, but some packages are illegally imported and distributed without them.
The FTC is reviewing distribution plans with four of the largest bidi importers -- including Colorado's Quintin USA and California's Smoker's Choice -- to make sure distribution is done legally. Some smaller companies and individual travelers who import bidis are not aware of or do not comply with regulations, he said.
Three major importers -- Quintin USA, Kretek International and Smoker's Choice -- did not reply to interview requests from the P-I.
Greg Hewett, a tobacco prevention coordinator for the King County Public Health Department, said he doesn't think Washington state has experienced the bidi craze like other parts of the country.
"We're not seeing any impact where retailers are selling them in Washington like in New York, Connecticut and Arizona," Hewett said. "Every year we do a teen smoker survey and it hasn't been an important issue at this point."
Most youths claim to smoke Camels, Newports, Kools and Marlboros -- the heaviest advertised brands, said health educator Leon-Guerrero.
Nevertheless, next year's annual teen smoker survey by the King County Tobacco Prevention Program will include specific questions about bidis for the first time.
"We are trying to monitor trends among young people using bidis," Asma of the CDC said. "The public should be made aware as to the harmful effects of this product. This is not a safe alternative to other tobacco products."
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Wu, a 15-year-old high school sophomore from Seatac who asked that his last name not be used, said he first tried strawberry-flavored bidis when he was in the eighth grade.
While young people may look at bidis as a natural form of tobacco, the cigarettes have more nicotine and tar than regular cigarettes.
Mia Song/P-I
P-I Reporter Erika Hayasaki can be reached at 206-448-8085 or erikahayasaki@seattle-pi.com
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