Guwahati, May 29 -- By Roopak Goswami

Guwahati: Herbal cigarettes, often marketed as natural, tobacco-free and healthier alternatives to regular smoking products, may be just as harmful, or in some cases even more dangerous than conventional tobacco cigarettes, according to a new Indo-US scientific study.

The joint research by the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States, found that smoke emitted from herbal cigarettes contained high levels of harmful fine particles and toxic compounds linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

The findings come at a time when herbal smoking products are increasingly being promoted among young consumers as "chemical...