system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Eli5: There are several non filtered tobacco smoking options such as cigars, pipies, etc. Why do cigarettes have filters when they don't actually "filter" anything?
gpt
Filters do filter out a part of the smoke compounds. A lot of bad compounds pass through though. So smoking with a filter is still bad. The main reason for the filter is that smoking with a filter feels milder on the throat. Moreover, it is less messy, as they prevent pieces of tobacco from entering the mouth. Yuck.