Beedi
Beedi ( Hindi : बीड़ी, Bīṛī , Biri ) is the name given to an Indian cigarette-like tobacco product made from a tendo leaf (Ceylon ebony , Diospyros melanoxylon ) as the husk and tobacco or other herbs as the filling. Beedis are very dry, strong and often perfumed.
history
Tobacco production began in the country since tobacco reached India in 1605 . The first beedis were invented by tobacco farm workers who rolled tobacco into leaves. From the 1930s, when the demand for tobacco products increased worldwide, Beedi production also experienced an enormous boom. The reason for this unprecedented development was also the policy of Gandhi , who politically supported Indian products and local industry. This was one of the reasons why intellectual and educated Indians soon preferred to smoke beedies instead of cigarettes, in order to make a visible mark against imported goods and British influence.
To this day, beedies are also smoked to demonstrate independence and Indian national consciousness.
Consumers
Due to low tobacco taxes and cheap production, beedis are popular with poorer sections of the population in Bangladesh , Pakistan , Afghanistan , Sri Lanka , Cambodia and India . In English, therefore, one speaks of a poor man's cigarette , a poor man's cigarette .
Compared to a normal cigarette, the smoker has to inhale deeper and more often to keep the beedi glowing. According to a study by the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention , the smoker consumes very high levels of carbon monoxide (39 mg / Beedi) and tar (78 mg / Beedi) compared to a normal cigarette . In Germany, cigarettes may only contain a maximum of 10 mg of carbon monoxide or tar in the smoke.
Manufacture and distribution
India produces more tobacco than the United States, the center of the international tobacco industry. It is therefore astonishing that the wrapper of the Beedis is not tobacco, but a tendu or blackwood leaf. The blackwood or Diospyros melanoxylon is a tree whose wood is counted among the ebony. Leaves from other woody plants are also used: Diospyros exsculpta , Bauhinia racemosa , Holarrhena pubescens or Artocarpus heterophyllus .
The leaves of these trees are picked in April and May and sun-dried before they are cut into rectangular pieces and moistened again before rolling. A mixture of tobacco, which is often also flavored, is rolled into the leaf. The Beedis are then dried for a certain time in specially heated rooms and packed in paper bundles of 25 pieces.
Most of the Beedi-Rollers are women who roll cigarettes for manufacturers at home. The raw material, tendo leaves, tobacco or herbs, thread and possibly filters, is provided by the manufacturing company via distribution networks. Health problems among homeworkers are not uncommon because of the tobacco dust. It happens that children also take part in the production (see: Child Labor ) in order to contribute to the family income, or because they are orphans and thus earn a living.
The producer of Mangalore Ganesh Beedies explicitly states on the Internet that he does not employ any children. Mangalore Ganesh Beedies has the largest share of the European Beedi market. The lucky elephant god Ganesha is on the packaging of this variety of Beedis .
Beedis are no longer available in Germany, but were available in tobacco shops until the 1990s. It is different in Austria and Switzerland , where they are still available today.
Web links
literature
Thomas Brunnschweiler: Beedies - the exotic alternative . In: NZZ Folio . No. 11 . Zurich 2001, p. 91 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ CH Watson, GM Polzin, AM Calafat, DL Ashley: Determination of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields in the smoke of bidi cigarettes . In: Nicotine Tob Res. , 2003, 5, pp. 747-753, PMID 14577991