I saw a few years ago various videos claiming that some cigarettes were “radioactive” because sections glowed under a black light (filtered UV light that is not harmful to look at with the naked eye) whereas others did not.
Fluorescence is often confused with radioactivity due to the use of phosphorescent materials based on tritium in watch dials etc that do contain a small amount of radioactive material. These things glow in a similar fashion to some objects placed under the black light – but it is not a detector of radioactivity. To confuse matters further many scientists do use UV-fluorescent material as a marker in place of radioactive substances as its safer!
I had to hand a blacklight CFL in a desk lamp fitting and remembered to save the last cigarette from a packet of a different brand so I had two types to compare – top is JPS Black (Imperial Tobacco) and bottom is Rothmans Royals Red (BAT).
Both have the glowing sections around roughly the same parts of the cig – I suspect that they are likely to be whatever chemical is put in the cigarette papers to try and prevent fires being set by an unattended cigarette (if it was some additive in the tobacco roll then surely the whole of the cigarette would glow?).
Would be interesting to see what the smokers in other countries see (even before the trend towards “additive free” brands British cigarettes have traditionally contained more Virginia tobacco and less additives than those smoked overseas)
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