The dark side of marketing seemingly "Light" cigarettes: successful images and failed fact.
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OBJECTIVE: To understand the development, intent, and consequences of US tobacco industry advertising for low machine yield cigarettes. METHODS: Analysis of trade sources and internal US tobacco company documents now available on various web sites created by corporations, litigation, or public health bodies. RESULTS: When introducing low yield products, cigarette manufacturers were concerned about maintaining products with acceptable taste/flavour and feared consumers might become weaned from smoking. Several tactics were employed by cigarette manufacturers, leading consumers to perceive filtered and low machine yield brands as safer relative to other brands. Tactics include using cosmetic (that is, ineffective) filters, loosening filters over time, using medicinal menthol, using high tech imagery, using virtuous brand names and descriptors, adding a virtuous variant to a brand's product line, and generating misleading data on tar and nicotine yields. CONCLUSIONS: Advertisements of filtered and low tar cigarettes were intended to reassure smokers concerned about the health risks of smoking, and to present the respective products as an alternative to quitting. Promotional efforts were successful in getting smokers to adopt filtered and low yield cigarette brands. Corporate documents demonstrate that cigarette manufacturers recognised the inherent deceptiveness of cigarette brands described as "Light"or "Ultra-Light" because of low machine measured yields. (+info)
Cigarette filter ventilation is a defective design because of misleading taste, bigger puffs, and blocked vents.
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OBJECTIVE: To review tobacco industry documents on filter ventilation in light of published studies and to explore the role of filter ventilation in the design of cigarettes that deliver higher smoke yields to smokers than would be expected from standard machine smoked tests (Federal Trade Commission (FTC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO)). DATA SOURCES: Searched from November 1999 to November 2000 internet databases of industry documents (www.pmdocs.com, www.rjrtdocs.com, www.lorillarddocs.com, www.bw.aalatg.com, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/industrydocs, www.tobaccodocuments.org, www.tobaccopapers.org, www.hlth.gov.bc.ca/Guildford, www.cctc.ca/ncth/Guildford, www.cctc.ca/ncth/Guildford2) for documents related to filter ventilation. Documents found dated from 1955 through 1994. STUDY SELECTION: Those documents judged to contain the most relevant information or data on filter ventilation related to cigarette taste and compensatory smoking, while also trying to avoid redundancy from various documents deriving from the same underlying data. DATA SYNTHESIS: Filter ventilation is a crucial design feature creating three main problems for lower tar cigarettes as measured by official smoking machine testing. Firstly, it misleadingly makes cigarettes taste lighter and milder, and, therefore, they appear less dangerous to smokers. Secondly, it promotes compensation mainly by facilitating the taking of larger puffs. Thirdly, for very heavily ventilated cigarettes (that is, > 65% filter air dilution), behavioural blocking of vents with lips or fingers is an additional contributor to compensatory smoking. These three effects are found in industry research as well as published research. CONCLUSIONS: Filter ventilation is a dangerous, defective technology that should be abandoned in less hazardous nicotine delivery systems. Health interested groups should test cigarettes in a way that reflects compensatory smoking. Lower tar (vented filter) cigarettes should be actively countermarketed. (+info)
Renal cell carcinoma and occupational exposure to chemicals in Canada.
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This study assesses the effect of occupational exposure to specific chemicals on the risk of renal cell carcinoma in Canada. Mailed questionnaires were used to obtain data on 1279 (691 male and 588 female) newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed renal cell carcinoma cases and 5370 population controls in eight Canadian provinces, between 1994 and 1997. Data were collected on socio-economic status, smoking habit, alcohol use, diet, residential and occupational histories, and years of exposure to any of 17 chemicals. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were derived using unconditional logistic regression. The study found an increased risk of renal cell carcinoma in males only, which was associated with occupational exposure to benzene; benzidine; coal tar, soot, pitch, creosote or asphalt; herbicides; mineral, cutting or lubricating oil; mustard gas; pesticides; and vinyl chloride. Compared with no exposure to the specific chemical, the adjusted ORs were 1.8 (95% CI = 1.2-2.6), 2.1 (1.3-3.6), 1.4 (1.1-1.8), 1.6 (1.3-2.0), 1.3 (1.1-1.7), 4.6 (1.7-12.5), 1.8 (1.4-2.3) and 2.0 (1.2-3.3), respectively; an elevated risk was also associated with exposure to cadmium salts and isopropyl oil. The risk of renal cell carcinoma increased with duration of exposure to benzene, benzidine, cadmium, herbicides and vinyl chloride. Very few females were exposed to specific chemicals in this study; further research is needed to clarify the association between occupational exposure to chemicals and renal cell carcinoma in females. (+info)
Cigarette tar yield and risk of upper digestive tract cancers: case-control studies from Italy and Switzerland.
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BACKGROUND: Tobacco smoking is one of the main risk factors for oral, pharyngeal and oesophageal cancers in developed countries. Information on the role of the tar yield of cigarettes in upper digestive tract carcinogenesis is sparse and needs to be updated because the tar yield of cigarettes has steadily decreased over the last few decades. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analysed two case-control studies, from Italy and Switzerland, conducted between 1992 and 1999, involving 749 cases of oral and pharyngeal cancer and 1770 controls, and 395 cases of squamous-cell oesophageal carcinoma and 1066 matched controls. Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated by unconditional multiple logistic regression models, including terms for age, sex, study centre, education and alcohol consumption. RESULTS: Based on the brand of cigarettes smoked for the longest time, the multivariate ORs for current smokers compared with never smokers were 6.1 for <20 mg and 9.8 for >or=20 mg tar for oral and pharyngeal neoplasms, and 4.8 and 5.4 for oesophageal cancer, respectively. For the cigarette brand smoked in the previous six months, the ORs for >or=10 mg compared with <10 mg were 1.9 for cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx and 1.8 for oesophageal cancer, after allowance for number of cigarettes and duration of smoking. CONCLUSIONS: The present study confirms the direct relationship between the tar yield of cigarettes and upper digestive tract neoplasms, and provides innovative information on lower tar cigarettes, which imply reduced risks compared with higher tar ones. However, significant excess risks were observed even in the lower tar category, thus giving unequivocal indications for stopping smoking as a priority for prevention of upper digestive tract neoplasms. (+info)
More on the regulation of tobacco smoke: how we got here and where next.
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The modern cigarette is unnecessarily dangerous. Despite being lower in tar yield, and consequently in squamo-carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons such as benzo[a]pyrene, the nitrosamine yields are often higher than they need to be. Also, reductions in tar levels have not led to the consequential reductions in mortality that were anticipated several decades ago. The modern cigarette is also smoother, easier to smoke and to learn how to smoke, highly addictive and facilitates compensatory smoking. Compensatory smoking leads to excess inhalation of carcinogens and toxins in the hunt for nicotine. Its labelling is misleading in that supposedly low-yielding cigarettes may, due to compensation occurring as a result of cigarette design, lead to inhalation of much higher amounts of nicotine, carcinogens and toxins than the smoker is led to expect. Regulation of the product is needed to provide the persistent smoker with a cigarette lower in risk, accurately labelled, providing a relatively consistent and known dose of nicotine, and less likely to facilitate compensatory smoking. This will not produce a safe cigarette but should result in a reduction in harm if seriously implemented. (+info)
Progressive alterations in global and GC-rich DNA methylation during tumorigenesis.
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DNA methylation plays a key role in the regulation of gene expression, and failure to maintain normal patterns of methylation often contributes to carcinogenesis. We have characterized progressive methylation changes during the promotion stage of carcinogenesis using a SENCAR mouse skin initiation/promotion tumorigenesis model. Mice were initiated with a dermal application of 75 microg dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) and promoted with 9, 18, 27, and 36 mg cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) thrice weekly for time periods up to 29 weeks, when a large increase in tumor number was produced by the highest three doses. Global and GC-specific methylation were assessed using SssI methylase and arbitrarily primed PCR, respectively. Changes in GC-specific methylation were dose- and time-dependent. CSC doses required to detect these changes were 27 mg at 6 weeks and 18 mg at 9 weeks. This effect appears to be reversible; changes in GC-specific methylation were less marked after 9 weeks promotion with 27 mg CSC followed by 6 weeks of recovery in comparison to 9 and 15 weeks promotion with 27 mg CSC and no recovery period. Both tumor and non-tumor tissue promoted with 27 mg CSC for 29 weeks exhibited changes in GC-specific methylation that were more pronounced in tumors. Tumor tissue was globally hypomethylated, whereas non-tumor tissue did not exhibit changes in global methylation. In conclusion, as expected for a mechanism underlying tumor promotion, CSC alters methylation in a threshold-exhibiting, reversible, progressive fashion during promotion. Progressive alterations in global and GC-rich methylation appear to be mechanistically important during tumor promotion. (+info)
Assessment of tobacco-specific nitrosamines in the tobacco and mainstream smoke of Bidi cigarettes.
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Bidi cigarettes, or bidis, are a tobacco product that originated in India and have been gaining popularity in the USA during the past few years, particularly with adolescents. As with conventional cigarettes, tobacco and smoke from bidis contain chemical constituents including carcinogenic chemicals such as the tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). To help better assess the potential public health risk associated with bidi cigarettes, we developed modern high throughput methods to accurately quantify TSNA levels in tobacco and mainstream cigarette smoke particulate. We determined the TSNA levels in the tobacco filler and mainstream smoke from 14 bidi cigarette brands. In the bidi tobacco filler, the 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) levels ranged from 0.09 to 0.85 microg/g, while N'-nitrosonornicotine (NNN) levels ranged from 0.15 to 1.44 microg/g. These amounts are comparable with those in typical American blended cigarettes. The levels of NNK in mainstream smoke from bidis ranged from 2.13 to 25.9 ng/cigarette, and NNN levels ranged from 8.56 to 62.3 ng/cigarette. The wide variation in the TSNA levels most probably reflects the hand-rolled nature of the bidi cigarettes, resulting in a product with less homogenous tobacco amount and a wider variation in overall cigarette construction quality. TSNA levels of bidis were comparable with those of conventional cigarettes, and bidis should not be considered a lower-risk alternative tobacco product. Our analytical findings concur with the previous biologic and biochemical evidence supporting epidemiologic studies linking bidi use with various cancers, especially oral cavity and lung cancers. (+info)
The Australian tar derby: the origins and fate of a low tar harm reduction programme.
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OBJECTIVE: To document the development of the low tar harm reduction programme in Australia, including tobacco industry responses. DATA SOURCES: Tobacco industry documents, retail tobacco journals, newspapers, medical journals, and Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria (ACCV) newsletters and archival records. STUDY SELECTION: Documents on the strategies and knowledge bases of the ACCV, other Australian health authorities, and the tobacco industry. RESULTS: The ACCV built a durable system for measuring and publicising the tar and nicotine yields of Australian cigarettes and influencing their development. The tobacco industry initially sought to block the development of this system but later appeared to cooperate with it, as is evidenced by the current market dominance of low tar brands. However, behind the scenes, the industry used its substantial knowledge advantage regarding compensatory smoking and its ability to re-engineer cigarettes to gain effective control of the system and subvert the ACCV's objectives. CONCLUSIONS: Replacement of the low tar programme with new means of minimising the harms from cigarette smoking should be a policy priority for the Australian government. This will require regulation, rather than further voluntary agreements, and stringent monitoring of successor programmes will be necessary. (+info)