I'm not claiming it is, or isn't, but hear me out here. Tobacco usage started tapering off, and all of the supposed "research" about it causing cancer began coming out roughly the same time Rockefeller took over the the medical industry and started pushing out established medicinal principles and knowledge. Fast forward a little bit, and Big Tobacco starts messing with the cigarette recipes to increase profit margins. They stopped using pure tobacco and started mixing it with various additives that today are known to cause cancer. This then spread to other "lesser" forms of tobacco. Chew, snuff, dip, etc.
The two outliers here, are Cigars and Pipes. Both tend to be "higher class/quality", rarely if ever have additives and have remained "pure". In doing so, several studies (Which you can easily find with a quick search), have shown that smoking up to two average sized cigars results in an absurdly small increase in chances of developing cancer of any kind.
On the other hand, nicotine, the main "ingredient" in tobacco products, actually has quite a few health benefits if used in moderation. Increased neural functions, improved memory, lowered chance of Dementia, increased blood flow (which promotes hair growth, muscle growth, etc.), etc. etc.
The point I'm trying to make here, is what if tobacco isn't bad for you in and of itself. Rather, it's all the crap the cabal companies stuff into their products to increase profits. If true, this is kind of like the soy thing. Pushing the populace into accepting some new "standard belief" that actually works against them and then engineering the results they want to "prove their point". Think about it? How often did you hear about tobacco linked cancer before the 40's and 50's? The Native Americans used tobacco in spiritual rituals for how many thousands of years with little to no negative side effects?
And then there's examples like Winston Churchill. Guys who chain smoked 10+ cigars a day, never had cancer, or so much as a cough, and lived into their 90s.
I'm curious what everyone's thoughts are on this topic.
This came about sometime around 2008-2009, and wasn't fully rolled out until Winston and American Spirits Caved sometime around 2011. The process involves treating the filters with Scotchgard, there are no adulterants added to the tobacco itself.
In theory RYO should be OK in that regard, particularly if you use no filters, or natural cotton ones.
Edit : after looking into it further, apparently there are also modifications to the paper tube causing "speed bumps" to the burn by using thicker sections of non-porous paper.