light cigarette according to a decision on a lawsuit brought by the usa against philip morris and philip morris own documents the only difference between regular cigarettes and a light cigarette is tiny holes placed on the paper that increase the air flow this increase in air flow increases the mutability of the smoke i e making so called light cigarettes even more likely to cause cancer and tumors than regular cigarettes philip morris has been banned from using the term light in the usa this is not true most light cigarettes are now made by expanding the tobacco thereby having the same amount of tobacco have more volume therefore each cigarette has less tobacco making them lighter not necessarily healthier but most certainly lighter but the thing about the paper being the only difference is one of the dumbest things i have ever heard the filter is more dense for starters seriously people this is supposed to be an encyclopedia actually what what your talking about before you post