What Are Indian Cigars?

Indian cigars, also called beedis or bidis, are small, hand-rolled cigars made of cheap, low-grade tobacco wrapped in thick leaves tied together with a string. Beedis are usually available in a variety of flavors including strawberry, mango, cinnamon, clove, cherry and vanilla. The making of beedis is a cottage industry in India and Southeast Asia, where female beedi rollers make about 1,000 beedis a day, earning around 80 cents for their labor.

Composition

• Indian cigars are made by wrapping loose tobacco in a non-porous tendu or temburni leaf, which is tied closed with colorful string. Beedis are usually smaller and contain less tobacco than cigarettes but require deeper inhaling to keep lit because of the thick leaf wrapping.

Health Effects

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that beedis give off more nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide than conventional cigarettes. The CDC goes on to state that beedis contain up to five times the nicotine as standard cigarettes. The American Lung Association states that beedi smoke contains five times as much tar as regular cigarette smoke. Because beedis are not very popular outside Southeast Asia, only limited research on the long-term health effects of beedis have been conducted in the United States.

Southeast Asia

• Bidi cigars are popular in Southeast Asia with lower income peoples due to their low cost. A bundle of 20 beedis cost little more than one imported regular cigarette. Beedis accounted for 48 percent of all tobacco usage in India in 2008.

Outside Southeast Asia

• In the United States, imported Indian cigars are taxed at the higher imported cigarette rate, as opposed to the lower cigar rate. All beedi bundles sold in the United States must carry the Surgeon General's health warning and a tax stamp. Flavored beedis are banned from sale along with other flavored tobacco in the United States, Canada and several European Union countries.