Evaluation of the health hazard of clove cigarettes. Council on Scientific Affairs.

Resolution 43 (1987 Annual Meeting), adopted by the House of Delegates, resolved that the American Medical Association study the dangers associated with clove cigarettes, that policy recommendations regarding regulation of clove and other tobacco additives be developed, and that this information be made available to physicians and the public. Clove cigarettes are tobacco products. They therefore possess all the hazards associated with smoking all-tobacco cigarettes. In addition, inhaling clove cigarette smoke has been associated with severe lung injury in a few susceptible individuals with prodromal respiratory infection. Some individuals with normal respiratory tracts have apparently suffered aspiration pneumonitis as the result of a diminished gag reflex induced by a local anesthetic action of eugenol (the active component of cloves), which is volatilized into the smoke. The American Medical Association has an existing policy vigorously opposing the use of any tobacco product; no exemption from this policy is made for clove-containing cigarettes.