Health impact of "reduced yield" cigarettes: a critical assessment of the epidemiological evidence.

ABSTRACT: Cigarettes with lower machine measured "tar" and nicotine yields have been marketed as "safer" than high tar products over the last four decades, but there is conflicting evidence about the impact of these products on the disease burden caused by smoking. This paper critically examines the epidemiological evidence relevant to the health consequences of "reduced yield" cigarettes. Some epidemiological studies have found attenuated risk of lung cancer but not other diseases, among people who smoke "reduced yield" cigarettes compared to smokers of unfiltered, high yield products. These studies probably overestimate the magnitude of any association with lung cancer by over adjusting for the number of cigarettes smoked per day (one aspect of compensatory smoking), and by not fully considering o

SUBMITTER: Thun MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1766045 | biostudies-literature | 2001

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature