Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Aug;40(4):553-564.
doi: 10.1007/s10865-017-9823-5. Epub 2017 Feb 21.

How people think about the chemicals in cigarette smoke: a systematic review

Jennifer C Morgan  1   2 , M Justin Byron  1   2 , Sabeeh A Baig  1   2 , Irina Stepanov  3 , Noel T Brewer  4   5
Affiliations

How people think about the chemicals in cigarette smoke: a systematic review

Jennifer C Morgan et al. J Behav Med. 2017 Aug.

Abstract

Laws and treaties compel countries to inform the public about harmful chemicals (constituents) in cigarette smoke. To encourage relevant research by behavioral scientists, we provide a primer on cigarette smoke toxicology and summarize research on how the public thinks about cigarette smoke chemicals. We systematically searched PubMed in July 2016 and reviewed citations from included articles. Four central findings emerged across 46 articles that met inclusion criteria. First, people were familiar with very few chemicals in cigarette smoke. Second, people knew little about cigarette additives, assumed harmful chemicals are added during manufacturing, and perceived cigarettes without additives to be less harmful. Third, people wanted more information about constituents. Finally, well-presented chemical information increased knowledge and awareness and may change behavior. This research area is in urgent need of behavioral science. Future research should investigate whether educating the public about these chemicals increases risk perceptions and quitting.

Keywords: Additives; Chemicals; Communication; Constituents; Ingredients; Tobacco.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Comment in

References

    1. Arnett JJ. Winston's“ No Additives” campaign:“ straight up”?“ no bull”? Public Health Reports. 1999;114(6):522. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bansal MA, Cummings KM, Hyland A, Bauer JE, Hastrup JL, Steger C. Do smokers want to know more about the cigarettes they smoke? Results from the EDUCATE study. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2004a;6(Suppl 3):S289–S302. doi: 10.1080/14622200412331320699. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bansal MA, Cummings KM, Hyland A, Giovino GA. Stop-smoking medications: Who uses them, who misuses them, and who is misinformed about them? Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2004b;6(Suppl 3):S303–S310. doi: 10.1080/14622200412331320707. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bansal-Travers M, Cummings KM, Hyland A, Brown A, Celestino P. Educating smokers about their cigarettes and nicotine medications. Health Education Research. 2010;25(4):678–686. doi: 10.1093/her/cyp069. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benowitz L. Compensatory smoking of low-yield cigarettes. In: Shopland DR, editor. Risks associated with smoking cigarettes with low machine yields of tar and nicotine. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2001. pp. 39–63.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources