Chapter 21 Low tar and nicotine cigarettes: health and safety

issues

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75% of respondents in a Gallup poll believed that low tar cigarettes are less

hazardous to health. However, when they switch to low-yield brands, smokers inhale

more deeply, hold smoke longer in their lungs, smoke more cigarettes, or cover air

holes in filters with their fingers. Low tar brands give smokers a false sense of

security, and "the illusion that low tar brands are safer than regular cigarettes is all

smoke and mirrors."

JAMA, September 2, 1993, p. 1399

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Many smokers intentionally block the ventilating holes in the cigarette and filter to get

more smoke (and nicotine). As an example, Players Ultra Mild, normally a 0.8 mg tar

cigarette, is transformed with the holes blocked into a cigarette that delivers 28.5 mg

of tar. "This is nearly as much of the carcinogenic sludge you would have gotten

smoking a straight Camel about 1955."

Smokescreen, p. 61

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Low tar and nicotine cigarette brands account for 60% of cigarettes sold in the U.S.

However, they are no safer than "full-flavor" brands, since smokers make up for the

"lighter" taste by drawing deeper and pulling in more smoke, or smoking more

cigarettes to keep up the same blood level of nicotine. The result to the smoker is the

same (or more) total amount of nicotine and tar absorbed.

San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 1994, p. A3, and NEJM, June 15, 1989, p. 1569

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"Low-yield" cigarettes are not low in nicotine content and do not in general deliver less

nicotine or tar to smokers than do higher-yield cigarettes. All cigarettes contain 6 to

11 milligrams of nicotine.

Growing Up Tobacco Free, p. 63 and JAMA, July 27, 1994, p. 312

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Thursday, July 06, 2000

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