Researchers concerned about light cigarettes

Ohio State University researchers are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start the formal process to regulate and possibly ban socalled light cigarettes.

The team, including lung cancer, public health and tobacco regulation researchers, did an analysis of existing literature that “included chemistry and toxicology studies, human clinical trials and epidemiological studies of both smoking behavior and cancer risk,” according to the university.

Today’s cigarettes are more dangerous than they were 40 years ago because cigarette makers add more holes in cigarette filters, said Dr. Peter Shields, deputy director of the

university’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. The ventilation holes in the cigarette mix the air with smoke.

The holes in cigarettes make the smoke smoother. “It’s less harsh, so you think it’s less harmful to you,” Shields said. “It allows the cigarettes to burn and encourages people to take bigger puffs, and encourages people to think they are smoking a safer cigarette.”

The 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health discovered that altering cigarette designs has led to an increase in the most common type of lung cancer, adenocarcinoma. The FDA has the power to control the design of cigarettes if it would improve public health.

Regular cigarettes have the least amount of holes, light cigarettes have more holes and “ultra light” cigarettes have the most holes.

But that doesn’t mean you should switch from ultra light to regular, Shields said.

“Cigarettes are already so deadly that while there could be a benefit from switching to regular, it would be small or minimal compared to quitting,” he said.

Alex Walls, 30, of Columbus, said he usually smokes light cigarettes, but hadn’t thought about ventilation holes.

“I buy one brand because I like the flavor, but if they screw with the flavor I would be a little mad,” Walls said.

The American Lung Association supports the researchers’ suggestion that the FDA do further studies into ventilation holes in cigarettes, said Dr. Norman Edelman, the organization’s senior scientific adviser.

The researcher’s review is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The University of California, the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of Minnesota, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Romania and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health also contributed to the work.

“It ... encourages people to take bigger puffs, and encourages people to think they are smoking a safer cigarette.”

— Dr. Peter Shields, deputy director of Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center