In all aspects of tobacco production and storage, the humid environment plays a crucial role in tobacco quality.
It's easy to think of the harm of moisture on tobacco – mold.
But in fact, an overly dry environment can damage tobacco as much as moisture.
Moisture is too low to damage tobacco
First, tobacco loses water and becomes dry, broken and falls off, reducing quality and causing economic losses
If the environment is too dry, the air will absorb moisture from the tobacco leaves, making the tobacco leaves dry, resulting in tobacco shrinkage, tobacco shedding, tobacco breaking, shrinking, affecting quality. During production, cigarette paper will appear to be stuck, delaying production and causing economic losses.
In the softening process of tobacco silk making, the ambient temperature and humidity requirements are about 85%-88%RH, the temperature is 30-32 °C, after softening, in order to prevent the tobacco leaves from losing moisture, the surrounding environment should be maintained at a temperature of 20-29 °C and a humidity of about 70-75%RH. The final process in the silk making stage is spiced and adjusted. This stage requires the relative humidity of the surrounding environment to be 60-68%RH.
In the storage process, a large amount of tobacco is exposed to the air, and too low humidity will dry out the tobacco, so the ambient temperature and humidity are maintained at 21-24 ° C, and 60-70% RH is more suitable.
Under dry conditions, the moisture content of tobacco is reduced, the yarn finishing rate decreases significantly, and the filament crushing rate increases significantly. In the distribution process, temperature (25±3) °C, humidity (65±5) % is a more suitable temperature and humidity environment. ①
Note (1): Reference: "The Influence of Ambient Temperature and Humidity on the Quality of Distributed Tobacco and Cigarette Quality" Author: Gu Liang, Li Chunguang, Liu Qiang, Fan Xinshun, Li Yaoguang, Sun Mi, Zhang Yuhai
Second, drying exacerbates the dust level of tobacco production workshops, interferes with production, and damages the health of workers
Drying the broken tobacco leaves will increase the dust level of the workshop and cause the deterioration of the production environment.
Irritating soot, dust, carbon dioxide in the air and a variety of microorganisms attached to the dust and other pollution, inhaled by workers, can lead to and aggravate chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, affecting the health of workers.
When the ambient humidity is higher than 50%, it can make the dust in the air sink.
Therefore, it is very important to create a reasonable humidity environment in the process of tobacco production, storage and distribution.
Especially in the dry winter, the air humidity itself is low, in order to ensure the quality of tobacco and prevent economic losses, the appropriate humidification of tobacco production, storage and distribution processes is particularly important.