Smokers who changed to lower tar cigarettes were no more likely to quit
smoking, or to try to give up the habit, than those who stuck with brands
that measured higher in tar and nicotine, say Andrew Hyland, Ph.D., of
the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo and colleagues.
The study appears in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco
Research.
Switching may even lessen the motivation to quit, he adds, since smokers
mistakenly believe that low-tar cigarettes are safer and continue to smoke
instead of quitting altogether.
Shifting to lower-tar cigarettes may be a form of self-deception.
Switching may demonstrate the motivation to quit, says Hyland, but smokers
still
find ways to ingest just as much tar and nicotine. They compensate for
lower tar in light or ultralight brands by inhaling more deeply or covering
filter holes. That way, they take in as much of the chemicals in tobacco
smoke as they would with regular cigarettes, says Hyland. “Smoker
compensation may largely eliminate any differences in measures of nicotine
dependence.”
Hyland and colleagues surveyed 1,003 smokers as part of the Community
Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT), a randomized study of
smoking cessation in 11 matched pairs of communities in the United States.
They asked whether the participants smoked ultralight (0-6 mg tar), light
(7-15 mg tar), or regular (16+ mg tar) cigarettes. Generic brands were
counted as regular tar cigarettes. Federal Trade Commission reports on
the tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide content of cigarette brands determined
tar levels.
“Previous findings from COMMIT indicate that 30 percent of those
who switched reported changing to low-tar cigarettes as a strategy to help
them stop smoking,” Hyland says. “Two thirds of respondents
in the present study reported they believed low-tar cigarettes are safer
than regular cigarettes.”
In the COMMIT study, 80 percent of those who smoked light cigarettes in
1989 continued smoking them in 1991. Only 8 percent switched to regular-tar
cigarettes, 8 percent switched to ultralight products and 5 percent switched
to generic brands. Most smokers of regular cigarettes also stayed with
them (77 percent) while 19 percent switched to a light or ultralight product
and 5 percent switched to a generic brand.
Hyland and colleagues found that respondents who switched to lower-tar
products tended to smoke regular cigarettes initially, were between 35
and 44 years old, and reported a greater desire to quit smoking. Only 10%
of smokers quit during the study period, regardless of whether they previously
switched to a lower tar level product.
“Our primary finding is that smokers who switched to lower-tar cigarettes
were no more likely to make a quit attempt or to achieve cessation over
a two-year period compared with those who did not switch to lower tar and
nicotine yield brand,” he says.
Hyland adds that COMMIT data (1998 to 1993) showed an increase in low-tar
brands of only 5 percent. Yet market share of those brands rose by 24 percent,
indicating that younger smokers entering the market may account for the
difference, rather than older smokers switching.
