The longer the smoke, the greater the risk

Smokers of long or ultra-long cigarettes are at greater risk of lung and oral cancer than are the smokers of regular and king-sized cigarettes, according to Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Center for Global Tobacco Control.

“We found that smokers of long or ultra-long cigarettes have higher concentrations of tobacco specific carcinogens in their urine than [do] smokers of regular or king-size cigarettes,” said Constantine Vardavas, M.D., senior research scientist at the HSPH.

According to a MarketWired report sourced from the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), Vardavas and colleagues compared urine tests among 3,699 smokers of regular, king-sized and long or ultra-long cigarettes using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 2007–2010.

Smokers of king-sized cigarettes accounted for 53 percent of the smoker population, smokers of long or ultra-long cigarettes constituted 31.5 percent, and smokers of regular-sized cigarettes made up the remaining 15.4 percent.

The researchers found that smokers of long or ultra-long cigarettes had significantly higher levels of NNAL—an indicator of a tobacco-specific carcinogen—in their urine.

In addition, researchers found that older smokers, non-Hispanic blacks and females had a greater tendency to smoke long or ultra-long cigarettes.

“While the significant risks of smoking are well known and accepted, very little information exists on the health risks of different sizes of cigarettes,” said Darcy Marciniuk, M.D., Fellow of the College of Chest Physicians and President of the ACCP.