Light cigarettes vs. regular cigarettes

          Our society has become so health conscious these days. We are constantly concerned with what we are putting in our bodies. Marketers use the words ‘light’, ‘low fat’ to sell a product, as individuals feel as if they are eating healthier.

           The same goes for cigarettes. For decades now, cigarette makers have markets so-called light cigarettes – which contain less nicotine than regular smokes –with the implication that they are less harmful, however a study at UCLA shows, that they deliver nearly as much nicotine to the brain. 

What is a light cigarette?

     Tobacco manufacturers have been redesigning cigarettes since the 1950s. Certain redesigned cigarettes with the following features were marketed as “light” cigarettes:

           ◦    Cellulose acetate filters (to trap tar).

           ◦    Highly porous cigarette paper (to allow toxic chemicals to escape).

            ◦    Ventilation holes in the filter tip (to dilute smoke with air).

Different blends of tobacco.

          Light cigarettes have nicotine levels of 0.6 to 1 milligrams, while regular cigarettes contain between 1.2 and 1.4 milligrams.

          Cigarettes with less nicotine than regular cigarettes, such as 'light' cigarettes, still occupy most brain nicotine receptors. Thus, low-nicotine cigarettes function almost the same as regular cigarettes in terms of brain nicotine-receptor occupancy.

          In an earlier study, researchers determined that smoking a regular, non-light cigarette resulted in the occupancy of 88 percent of these nicotine receptors. However, that study did not determine whether inhaling nicotine or any of the thousands of other chemical found in cigarette smoke resulted in this receptor occupancy.

          Developed in the 1960s, lower-tar or specially filtered cigarettes grew in popularity and now represent 97 percent of all cigarette sales. Despite a widespread consumption of the so-called "safer" cigarettes, NCI found that lung cancer rates continued to rise steadily between the late 1960s and early 1990s. An overall decline in lung cancer rates since the 1990s can be attributed to the decrease in smoking prevalence, and not to changes in cigarette design, says the NCI. Results of studies conducted in the United Kingdom produced similar results.

          Smokers who switch to low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes from regular cigarettes "compensate" for the lower nicotine level by inhaling more deeply; taking larger, more rapid, or more frequent puffs; or by increasing the number of cigarettes smoked per day," thus canceling any possible benefit from smoking "low-tar" cigarettes.

          In addition, NCI found that tobacco industry marketing strategies for "low-tar" cigarettes, intended to reassure smokers, tended to prevent them from quitting.

          Moreover, there is no such thing as a safe cigarette. The only guaranteed way to reduce the risk to your health, as well as the risk to others, is to stop smoking completely.