A Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory man got another reason to quit smoking Tuesday after buying contraband cigarettes apparently infested with live insects.
The man, who asked that his name not be published because he feared reprisals, said he opened two packs of Putter's Light cigarettes to find several types of live, tiny insects and what appeared to be a worm.
"I noticed the marks on them first," the man said, pointing to little holes and brown lines on the cigarettes. "I thought maybe they were just marks from the machines making them or something."
He said he's not sure how many he smoked before noticing the actual critters, which he said burrow into the product and out through the packaging.
"They eat right through the packages -- the tinsel and everything -- right down into the filters.
"I thought, 'That's why they're selling them so cheaply,'" he said.
He said he bought the 20-cigarette packs at two locations on the reserve, where they sold for $17 to $20 per carton.
"It's just frigging ridiculous," said the smoker. "It just shows there's nothing in this country someone can't make worse and sell cheaper.
"There's enough already in them to kill people," he said, wondering aloud if the bugs could be a further health risk.
Enraged by his find, the man arrived Thursday at the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit headquarters in Belleville. He brought two packs of cigarettes with him. No insects were visible at the time.
He said he went there expecting health officials to have the power to investigate.
But Roberto Almeida, manager of the unit's tobacco control program, told the man such matters are governed by the federal government.
The health unit's involvement with tobacco is limited mainly to prevention: encouraging people to avoid smoking or to quit, and enforcing provincial laws governing tobacco sales.
"We don't regulate cigarette manufacturing," Almeida told the visitor. "There is very little we can do about it."
"Smoking tobacco, whether it's contraband or legal, is harmful in the first place because there are 4,000 chemicals in it and it's a known carcinogen."
He said he didn't disagree with the man's view that "when people buy cigarettes they don't expect to buy bugs and worms with them" but doesn't have the jurisdiction to address it.
"When it comes to contraband we have no idea where they're manufactured or under what conditions."
He referred the man to Health Canada. The visitor was loudly insistent in his belief health units should have the mandate to enforce quality control; he departed in a huff.
Almeida said he's heard of insects and other foreign objects being found in tobacco products, though "this is the first time I've seen something purported to be live.
"It's an illegal product, so people shouldn't be buying it and if they find something in it they shouldn't be surprised."
Health Canada spokeswoman Christelle Legault said via an e-mail to The Intelligencer the country's Tobacco Act "does not mandate any standards of quality of cigarette contents."
"Health Canada continues to work with its federal partners to address the issue of contraband tobacco," she wrote.
"Contraband cigarettes pose the additional problems of being accessible to youth, more attractive to smokers due to their lower price, as well as typically lacking health warning labels and information about their toxic emissions."
Public Safety Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Canada Revenue Agency on May 28 announced new initiatives to combat contraband tobacco and to reduce the amount of tobacco consumed, Legault said.