Low nicotine and nicotine-free cigarettes no less harmful to smokers, research finds

doi:10.1136/bmj.39601.478900.4E

BMJ 2008;336:1270 (7 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39601.478900.4E

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Low nicotine and nicotine-free cigarettes no less harmful to smokers, research finds

Roger Dobson

¹ Abergavenny

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Perceptions that low nicotine and nicotine-free cigarettes areless harmful than conventional cigarettes are not supportedby research.

Smokers might have reduced exposure to some toxicants, but exposureto others is greater, say researchers in Toxicology (2008 May24 doi: 10.1016/j.tox.2008.05.009).

"This situation would likely be exacerbated by the users compensatingfor the lower nicotine yield and inhaling more, thereby furtheraltering the smoke chemistry," say the authors, whose testsshowed that condensates of smoke from the nicotine-free andlow nicotine cigarettes had a similar mutagenic potency to areference cigarette.

The researchers, from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center,Georgetown University, Washington, DC, investigated the lownicotine and nicotine-free cigarettes produced by Vector Tobacco,under the tradename Quest.

New products from the tobacco industry need scientific evidenceto show whether they have health benefits, the researchers say,adding that cigarette smoke contains more than 4000 differentcompounds, of which . . . [Full text of this article]

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