Daily HealthBeat Tip - April 17, 2007

What heavy smokers breathe

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

It's tough being a heavy smoker. Even when you try to cut back, the addiction still has power. A look at the toxic chemicals that heavy smokers get when they try to smoke less shows that.

Dorothy Hatsukami of the University of Minnesota examined smokers who averaged 26 cigarettes a day but dropped to five – about what light smokers smoke.

The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Hatsukami says heavy smokers still took in two to three times more toxic substances per cigarette than the light smokers. She thinks heavy smokers were sucking harder to make up for reduced nicotine.

"The only way to reduce death and disease from cigarette smoking is to quit smoking, and not to just reduce." (8 seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: April, 18 2007