When The Smoke Cleared It was Easy To See Why They Used Humidifiers
- Listed: October 23, 2010 4:11 pm
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Description
Tobacco is an important cash crop for many expanding markets and developed markets with the climate to support it alike. Being far more fragile as a plant than you would probably expect, tobacco needs careful treatment while it is grown, while it is being stored, and while being made into cigars and cigarettes and transported once a finished product.
If tobacco is allowed to become too dry before it is made into the final smokable product the leaves become too fragile to make into cigars, the shredded leaf becomes too fine to work with in machines, it becomes brittle and then flakes apart into dust which, as well as meaning product shrinkage, if it gets into machinery it becomes an even greater fire hazard particularly when you consider that a humid atmosphere is important for the dissipation of electrostatic charge. If the air is too dry then static sparks are more likely. It’s important to have humidificadores or humidifiers as they are known not only keep the leaf fresh but prevent fires and explosions.
If tobacco is allowed to dry out once it has been made into the final products the results are fragile cigars which burn far too quickly and are inclined to crack, split and crumble and cigarettes with their insides just falling out.
Tobacco leaves, shredded tobacco and papers used to make cigarettes are all hygroscopic, meaning they both absorb and equally give up moisture to the air very easily. Dehydration in tobacco will also mean shrinkage and lightness of stock which might sound like a good idea when it comes to storage and transportation, however, the damage dome to the tobacco by doing this would mean a far inferior product to tobacco that hadn’t been treated this way.
Of course it’s important to keep moisture constant. You might be thinking it would pay a less reputable producer to keep tobacco in an environment with abnormally high humidity so that the stock is bigger and heavier due to the amount of moisture it has taken on. However this is made more difficult than is worthwhile as the tobacco would be inclined to mould just as any plant would if kept this way.
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