So it’s possible that smokers using these kinds of cigarettes-even if they aren’t outwardly marketed as “light” any longer-still think they’re healthier. In fact, after the ban, 92 percent of smokers reported they could still easily identify their brand, and 68 percent were able to correctly name the package color associated with their usual brand, a 2013 Harvard study found. In most cases, the color of the pack stayed the same, so consumers could still find their old favorites. Marlboro Lights, for example, are now called Marlboro Gold. Since companies can’t market their cigarettes based on strength anymore, they’ve rebranded them. That’s one of the reasons tobacco companies were required to stop labeling their cigarettes as “light” or “ultralight” as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. So they may find themselves taking longer drags, inhaling more deeply, and holding the smoke in their mouths for longer.Īs a result, people who smoke those kinds of cigarettes actually ended up taking in the same or even more of the toxins, says Dr. What’s more, people who use “light” or “ultralight” cigarettes tend to compensate by smoking differently to maintain a comfortable level of nicotine in their blood, says Dr. That’s because humans inhale smoke differently than a machine does. However, the smoking machine doesn’t accurately predict how much of the harmful chemicals an actual smoker will inhale. So many people think they’re getting a safer cigarette. More recently, researchers from Turkey determined that light cigarettes impair the vascular function of the heart just as much as the regular ones do.Ĭigarettes marketed as “light” or “ultralight” contain less tar-and sometimes less nicotine-than regular kinds, when measured by a machine that mimics the smoking process. Related: The Better Man Project-2,000+ Awesome Tips on How to Live Your Healthiest Lifeįor instance, back in 2004, a study from the American Cancer Society found that men who smoked these kinds of cigarettes were just as likely to die from lung cancer as those who smoked regular ones. “There’s a preponderance of science that says ‘light’ or ‘ultralight’ cigarettes are just as dangerous or more dangerous than regular cigarettes,” says Michael Fiore, M.D., M.P.H., the director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. In fact, according to a 2009 University of Pittsburgh study, 51 percent of smokers who switch to light cigarettes do so because they believe they’re less harmful to their health. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |