Smokers Who Cut Back Held to Inhale More

Smokers who cut back tend to compensate by smoking more intensely, tripling the tar and nicotine they inhale from each cigarette and undercutting their efforts to improve their health, a study has found.

“Our advice is that if they can, the best thing to do is quit entirely,” said Dr. Peyton Jacob III, a co-author of the study.

The study suggests that by smoking more intensely, people are able to satisfy their nicotine craving with far fewer cigarettes than they ordinarily smoke. This explains why people trying to stop smoking often are able to cut back but fail to kick the habit.

Benefits Less Than Expected

“Our findings do not contradict the proposition that smoking fewer cigarettes per day poses less risk to health than smoking more cigarettes,” the researchers wrote. “However, the magnitude of the benefit from reduced exposure to toxins was much less than expected.”

They also cautioned that their data does not apply to all smokers who are trying to quit. Some may consciously restrain the intensity of their puffing.

“However,” they added, “our data is relevant to patients who are asked by their physicians to smoke fewer cigarettes.”

They said such people could easily cut back from two packs to 15 cigarettes a day but only slightly reduce their intake of the toxins in tobacco smoke.

13 Hospitalized in Study

The study, directed by Dr. Neal L. Benowitz of San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, was published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.