Reduce the number of cigarettes smoked per day is useless!

Smokers can reduce the number of cigarettes smoked per day, but they are usually deeply tightened. Such behavior is known as compensatory smoking. To determine the impact of the smoking, researchers from the University of Minnesota have studied how different toxic substances exposure to tobacco smoke among those smokers who are smoking less, compared to those smokers who previously smoked a few cigarettes a day. They compared the participants in two groups of smokers reduced the number of cigarettes smoked (N = 64), with a group of moderate smokers (N = 62), who smoked the same number of cigarettes per day, and smokers from the first two groups. Compensation rates of smoking were determined using two biomarkers in urine, which are metabolites of tobacco-specific carcinogen. It turned out the average level of these biomarkers was twice as high in smokers, reducing the number of smoked cigarette smokers, compared with moderate smokers, even if they smoked the same number of cigarettes per day. In this case, than a greater number of cigarettes per day there was a decrease, the higher was the level of compensation of smoking. The researchers conclude that compensatory smoking does not allow to reduce the harm of smoking in reducing the number of cigarettes smoked.