Foreign Matter in Tobacco

[thepipesman]

Have you ever found foreign objects in your tobacco? I opened a new tin of tobacco today, started rubbing out a small pile on a paper to let it aerate a bit before packing in my pipe and was a bit grossed out to find all these short little hairs clumped up in the tobacco. It looks like trimmings you would find in your sink after a shave. I managed to separate most of the hair that I could see out of the pile and ended up packing my pipe but for some reason I just couldn't get the thought out of my mind and bring myself to light it. I hate the smell of burning hair. I'm wondering if I should just throw out the tin or if it's worth returning (because how would the store even know I was telling the truth). What would you do? And I'm curious if anyone here has ever found something that didn't belong in their tobacco?

 

[DeerparkDays]

Honestly, and I’m doing this out of concern for you……post the tin to me and I will use my pipe to test the contents of the tin, bowl by bowl. When I’m happy that everything is OK and safe for you I will send you the dottle!!

 

[Grangerous]

Probably hand blended on a floor of a barber shop or pet grooming business.

Honestly, I don’t want to know how much “permissible” foreign matter turns up in our processed foods despite the best intentions of regulations.

Never “chew” pipe tobacco as some others have suggested. It’s not held to food safety standards.

A pipe is unhealthy to begin with so it’s kind of a mute point to worry about what else is going up in smoke.

 

[tobakenist]

Could be from sacking when the tobacco is pressed.

 

[AJL67]

Helps to post pics of things so people can see what you’re talking about and don’t have to guess.

 

[captpat]

I worked in a fruit packing plant in the summers to put myself through college. Even back then there were regulations on how many insect parts or whole insects could be found in a sample. So finding a bit of hair in a tin of tobacco is hardly surprising and probably isn't the worst of what one might find. The OP must REALLY like that tobacco to take the time to separate out the hair-like stuff.

 

[skeeter456]

No but i am sure i smoked some for sure

 

[fireground_piper]

Yep, could be from anywhere.

 

[Browny]

Not noticed anything personally.

Since there's a foreign body permissable allowance on all food products, I wouldn't be surprised.

I'd say nothing detrimental, throw out the clump, quick scan for more, load up and carry on.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Since there's a foreign body permissable allowance on all food products, I wouldn't be surprised.

Agricultural products are basically never washed before they get sacked and put on shelves. Corn, wheat, dried beans... I would never eat dried beans without washing them first. As I have harvested corn, rats, mice, bugs in the field, get scooped up into the combine. There's minimal we can do to keep these multi complex machines from grabbing them. We usually just hope they run out of the grain tanks, but they have to make their way through the thresher and sieves, which usually messes with their heads.
Then the grains get stored in silos... full of mice and birds. We try to keep them out, but...

Wash your food.

I have opened a can of green beans and found a grasshopper all pink and red like a lobster.

In my tobacco tins, I have found little pieces of twine and larger chunks of tobacco stems from time to time. Not often, but it happens. Hair? Nope... that would make me wonder if the tobacconist had a really bad day at work that day, ha ha. Jeremy may have gotten his beard caught in something.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Cat and dog hair is in about everything I eat, drink, and smoke. If you're a pet owner, you make yourself at one with the fact that you are going to ingest a certain amount. Hell, my socks have woven themselves in with cat hair as I walk about the house.

 

[tbradsim1]

Local syrup factory after the harvest used to give employees 2 cases of cane syrup, that year 2 dogs came in the plant and fell in the syrup vat, they keep on cooking, that year no employee asked for his 2 cases, true story, I Garronte!

 

[woodsroad]

Could be from sacking when the tobacco is pressed.

“Short hairs” and “sacking” suggest something more intimate to me.

 

[Briar Lee]

When I go in that Grade A milk barn, I can see a faint groove on the concrete floor where father’s footsteps made carrying six gallon stainless steel milk canisters full of milk from the milking parlor to the huge stainless steel, refrigerated tank in front.

He produced milk for children’s school lunches.

There wasn’t any, foreign matter in that bulk tank, only pure, fresh, raw milk.

He’d spend about three hours in the morning and three in the evening every day, and an hour of that was scrubbing the barn.

You can’t imagine how clean it was.

 

[sablebrush52]

While I've little doubt that there's some foreign matter in the tins I smoke I've never encountered anything I could recognize. Burning hair is not a good smell, nor a good look.

 

[FLDRD]

Have you ever found foreign objects in your tobacco? I opened a new tin of tobacco today, started rubbing out a small pile on a paper to let it aerate a bit before packing in my pipe and was a bit grossed out to find all these short little hairs clumped up in the tobacco. It looks like trimmings you would find in your sink after a shave. I managed to separate most of the hair that I could see out of the pile and ended up packing my pipe but for some reason I just couldn't get the thought out of my mind and bring myself to light it. I hate the smell of burning hair. I'm wondering if I should just throw out the tin or if it's worth returning (because how would the store even know I was telling the truth). What would you do? And I'm curious if anyone here has ever found something that didn't belong in their tobacco?

I recently found a little "chunk" of matter in one of my G&H tins, IIRC. It's still sitting on my counter in my pipe area. I can't determine if it is a rock (it feels as hard as one), or if it is a condensed, coagulated piece of tobacco "goo" that broke loose from their old and original machinery.

Not gross, just out of the ordinary. I pick it up and poke at it with my thumbnail from time to time and still haven't figured it out. Nothing gross enough to concern me though.

I found it because I fondle, er, prepare, most of my tobacco rather diligently with my fingers...

 

[kcghost]

Tobacco sometimes gets things in that offends our sensibilities. You can either throw the tin out or smoke it.

 

[renfield]

I’ve found some bits of what looked to be twine.

No feathers or other animal matter that I know of.

 

[hawky454]

Cat and dog hair is in about everything I eat, drink, and smoke. If you're a pet owner, you make yourself at one with the fact that you are going to ingest a certain amount. Hell, my socks have woven themselves in with cat hair as I walk about the house.

Very true, haha. It’s just a fact of life if you love your pets. It grosses non-dog people out but that’s a good thing because I’d rather know if a person is anti-dog before I take the time to get to know them. I am pretty sure I wouldn’t get along very well with a person who doesn’t like dogs.

 

[mso489]

I've handled my tobacco from time to time, rubbing it out of course, grating it in a hand grater, mixing it to add condiments, and so forth, plus just packing the pipes. I've never run across anything identifiable as a paper clip, a grasshopper leg, a millipede, etc.

I don't take this as a certification of purity. It just means that anything non-tobacco in there was broken up small enough to not be identified.

I have occasionally wondered about the tin note on some blends that has a definite whiff of the horse barn to it. However, when burned, these blends blossom into good tobacco taste. Perhaps the horse barn sweepings enhance that flavor?

With luck, maybe some impurity keeps the immune system on the ball. Supposedly studies have show that children who grow up with animals in the home develop a lower incidence of allergies, presumably by being accustomed to dander and low levels of animal waste that teach kids' bodies to cope.

Maybe that cane syrup with the dogs cooked into it should have been sold as an elixir for allergies? Or maybe not.