Smokers Consume Same Amount of Cigarettes Irrespective of Nicotine Levels

A latest study states that cigarettes with low levels of nicotine does not increase smokers' addiction to cigarettes.

Most often, to lower the level of cigarette smoking, the levels of nicotine in the cigarettes are reduced. This not only helps lower the addiction but also exposes the person to low toxic chemicals. But a lot of debate was centered around the use of this method as some claimed that smokers may smoke more to attain the similar nicotine level.

But, the latest study led by researchers at the University of Waterloo states that smokers did not increase their consumption of cigarettes, as earlier perceived, when smoking a reduced nicotine brand.

"One of the primary barriers to reducing nicotine levels is the belief that individuals who continue to smoke will smoke more cigarettes in an effort to extract the same nicotine levels, thereby exposing themselves to greater amounts of toxic chemicals. Our findings suggest this is not the case," said Professor David Hammond, of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Waterloo, and lead author of the paper.

In this study, the researchers looked at the smoking behavior of 72 adults as they shifted to three different types of cigarettes that had low nicotine levels. The cigarettes they smoked was Quest 1, Quest 2 and Quest 3 that had nicotine levels of 8.9, 8.4 and 0.6 mg, respectively.  A regular cigarette on an average had 12mg of nicotine.

Unlike other cases, where smokers shift between various conventional cigarette brands that had same nicotine levels, this study observed change in the number of cigarettes the smoker consumed, there was no change in the puffing behavior nor the levels of toxic chemicals in their system.

This findings offers relief to the concern that smokers would begin consuming more cigarettes or puff harder if the government dropped nicotine levels to negligible amounts.

"The smokers were unable or unwilling to compensate when there was markedly less nicotine in the cigarette and when the experience of smoking is far less rewarding," said Hammond.

This is a strong evidence that reduction of nicotine levels in cigarettes would make the product less addictive.

The study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.