| The Tobacco Reference Guide
|
| by David Moyer, MD. |
| Chapter 21 Low tar and nicotine cigarettes: health and safety issues |
| globalink (artefact pour saut de ligne) |
| 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 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| 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 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| 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 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| "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 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour |
| Page 2 of 11 |
| globalink (artefact pour saut de ligne) |
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