Light cigarettes equally harmful

"Light" cigarettes are as harmful as regular cigarettes in damaging the blood vessels of a smoker. Critics have long charged that cigarettes branded as "light" or "low-tar" dupe the public into thinking they carry fewer health risks, even though studies have shown light cigarettes to be as deadly as regulars ones. Light cigarettes deliver less nicotine and lower levels of toxic chemicals when a machine measures the smoke. In real life, however, studies show that smokers inhale comparable amounts of nicotine and tobacco chemicals regardless of the brand or whether the cigarette is light or regular. Researchers from the Konya Teaching and Medical Research Centre in Turkey found that among healthy young adults, those who smoked showed signs of poor blood flow to the heart, irrespective of the cigarettes being light or regular ones. The researchers assessed 62 adults in their 20s, including 20 who smoked regular cigarettes, 20 who used light cigarettes and 22 who'd never smoked. All study participants underwent non-invasive imaging to gauge their coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR), a measure of how well blood flow speeds up to aid the heart when it's under increased demands. CFVR reflects the overall functioning of the network of small blood vessels that feed the heart. The smokers had their CFVR measured after 12 smoking-free hours, and, on a separate day, within a half-hour of having two cigarettes. It was found that smokers had poorer CFVR than non-smokers, and their measurements became poorer still after they had smoked a couple of cigarettes. What's more, the drop in CFVR was virtually the same whether the cigarettes were light or regular. Surveys in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere have shown that much of the public remains confused about the health effects of light cigarettes, and that some smokers opt for these brands because they think they carry fewer risks. Smoking low-tar, low-nicotine cigarettes seems to have the same unfavourable effect on blood supply to the heart as smoking regular cigarettes.