The Tobacco Reference Guide by David Moyer

UICC GLOBALink Presents...

by David Moyer, MD.

Chapter 21 Low tar and nicotine cigarettes: health and safety

issues

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"For more than 60 years, tobacco product manufacturers have made claims of

reduced harm for some of their products; the first filter cigarette that claimed to reduce

the acrolein content of smoke was marketed in 1930. When evidence linked

cigarettes with lung cancer in the 1950's, harm-reduction claims became more

blatant: filter cigarettes were advertised as reducing the risk of lung cancer. However,

it is now known that the tobacco industry views filter and low-tar cigarettes as

health-image (public relations tools, designed to calm smokers' anxieties) rather than

health-oriented products (those that may reduce harm). Moreover, it is now common

knowledge that low-tar cigarettes are smoked more vigorously, which undermines any

potential benefit. Filter and low-tar cigarettes have thus been marketed with

unregulated promises of reduced harm that have largely been unfulfilled; but for these

innovations, there would be far fewer smokers today, given public awareness of

smoking-related risks."

Reducing Tobacco-Related Diseases: Alternative Approaches, July 1996

Amsterdam workshop, p. 7 (John Slade)

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The tobacco industry has marketed low tar and nicotine cigarettes with the clear

intention that by using them, a smoker can prevent or modify smoking-induced

disease.

Tobacco Use, p. 54

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Increasing numbers of smokers have switched to lower tar and nicotine brands, rather

than stopping smoking, in the misguided believe that they can smoke more safely.

NEJM, December 1, 1994, p. 1531

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Thursday, July 06, 2000

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