Changes of smoking habits and cough in men smoking cigarettes with 30% NSM tobacco substitute

Abstract

The effects of smoking cigarettes with 30% of the tobacco replaced by NSM tobacco substitute, which lowered their tar and nicotine delivery, were studied by comparing them with the effects of conventional cigarettes in a controlled crossover trial lasting 20 months. Chest symptoms, cigarette consumption, and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) were measured each month. Two-hundred men began the trial and 159 completed it. The test cigarettes were acceptable to all but one of the men. In a subsample of 35 men estimates of nicotine intake were obtained from monthly analyses of cigarette stubs. On changing from NSM to control cigarettes six of the 17 men, who were accustomed to low nicotine, kept their nicotine intake down by some change in smoking habit. Before the crossover and this change in smoking habit the men smoking NSM cigarettes had a small but significant reduction of cough. Cigarettes containing 30% NSM and delivering only 1 mg of nicotine are likely to be acceptable to smokers and may reduce coughing. Further trials are needed to confirm these findings and establish what long-term effects such cigarettes may have on smokers' health.