Ever health-conscious, you barely touch the ground as you glide through life. Given a little more time, you might even give up cigarettes altogether, since you've already quit smoking the hard stuff. 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 .
Light cigarettes can contain just as much nicotine and carbon monoxide as regular cigarettes.
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. If the American Journal of Preventive Medicine were widely read by smokers, light cigarette sales might plummet.