Shedding Light on Light Cigarettes
Bruce Watson
By Rita Rubin
Special to ABCNEWS.com
Ever health-conscious, you barely touch the ground as you glide through
life. "Light" is your mantra. You take your ice cream light, your coffee
light, your beer light--and your cigarettes are light, too, perhaps even
ultra-light. Given a little more time, you might even give up cigarettes
altogether, since you've already quit smoking the hard stuff.
Wrong. A cigarette is a cigarette is a cigarette. Light and ultra-light
cigarettes do contain lower levels of tar. But they can still deliver the
same dose of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide as regular cigarettes,
says a paper in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine.
Ultra Light cigarettes can contain just as much nicotine and carbon
monoxide as regular cigarettes.
How can this be? Turns out smokers compensate for cigarettes' lightness
by puffing more frequently or more deeply, or by blocking filters with
their fingers or lips, according to researchers from Penn State,
Millersville University in Pennsylvania and the University of Vermont.
That's why studies have failed to find a reduced cancer risk in
light-cigarette smokers.
In a national telephone survey, the researchers found that only one out
of 10 smokers knew that a light and regular cigarettes were equal when it
comes to tar delivery.
That's exactly how the tobacco industry likes it, according to the
scientists. They cite industry documents showing that low-tar cigarettes
were developed to keep health-conscious smokers smoking. Apparently, it's
worked: about 60 percent of cigarettes sold in the United States now are
light.
If the American Journal of Preventive Medicine were widely read by
smokers, light cigarette sales might plummet. A third of the light
smokers and a quarter of the ultralight smokers in the survey said they
would be likely to quit if they learned that their cigarette of choice
was just as potent as a regular. The researchers conclude that the
government should stop allowing cigarette-makers to use the terms "light"
and "ultralight" in cigarette names or advertising.
Copyright 1998, ABC News
W$
Bruce Watson wrote:
> Shedding Light on Light Cigarettes
> By Rita Rubin
> Special to ABCNEWS.com
>
Never give up do you Bruce? LOL!!! ROFL!!!
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
W$>sy...@cybervex.com
[cybervex ~ riposte]
Cavalier$
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Old Friendly Cliff
>Shedding Light on Light Cigarettes
>By Rita Rubin
>Special to ABCNEWS.com
>
Is this some female relative of "Crazy Jerry" Rubin, of the Berkeley Free
Speech Movement?
---
Politically correct signature that does not rouse the
anti-whatever hysterics to spit-bubble-blowing frenzy.
ru...@interlog.com
>
> Bruce Watson wrote:
>
> > Shedding Light on Light Cigarettes
> > By Rita Rubin
> > Special to ABCNEWS.com
> >
>
I'll say this about him: He's persistent.
Invariably wrong, but persistent.
