Full flavored cigarettes or Lights cigarettes
Scientists destroyed a widespread myth claiming that light cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes.
Julianne Blitzer has been smoking Marlboro Gold for almost a decade. She switched to lights from full flavored counterparts since she was confident that they are less harmful and addictive than stronger cigarettes.
However, nowadays the South Carolina teacher knows the bitter truth: scientists have proven that light cigarettes are as addictive as other cigarettes.
She said the thought about the strong addiction to her lights crossed her mind several times when she unsuccessfully tried to give up smoking several times.
Light cigarettes have been considered to be safer, healthier and easier to give up for quite a long time, however, a recent research of smokers’ habits showed astonishing results. Scientists surveyed almost 13,000 smokers from former to current and from light to chain smokers. The survey contained several smoking, and it revealed that smokers who preferred light cigarettes twice less likely to successfully give up smoking than those who smoked stronger cigarettes.
The research results, published in the latest edition of American Journal of Preventive Medicine, bring scientifically proven reasons why smokers who favored light cigarettes were less likely to give up. However researchers believe that “light” smokers had less motivation to give up smoking since they considered that light cigarettes contained fewer additives and were healthier.
Dr. Melody Carner, the leader of the research and an assistant professor of psychology at the San Antonio University School of Sociology said that due of misleading claims of cigarette producers that light cigarettes have been less hazardous for health, smokers were confused and switched to light cigarette which led to grievous consequences since they could not gave up when they wanted to.
Research has demonstrated that light cigarettes do not provide any health benefits; moreover, the latter study is the first one that points out to the behavioral changes related to light cigarettes. Some elder smokers even remember that in the late ‘70s many physicians advised their patients to switch to light cigarettes in case they wanted to give up smoking.
According to Dr. Carner, light cigarettes were introduced to the smoking audience almost half a century ago to make smokers believe that there is a healthier alternative to conventional cigarettes and maybe attract to smoking those who were afraid of health complications related to stronger cigarettes smoking.
Nevertheless, such terms as “low tar,” “light” or “slim” are chimeras, since, in case of light cigarettes they are simply wrapped in distinct paper but they do contain the same volume of additives as full flavor cigarettes.
They obtained the name “light” because of tests performed by electronic smoking machines, said Dr. Carner.
