Are the Claims That Low Tar Cigarettes Are Safer True?
Even among cigarette smokers, it has become fashionable to try to remain “health conscious.” That is, to eat right, to drink right, to exercise, and even to smoke right. As a result cigarette advertisers began to associate tobacco products with fresh air, mountain streams, sports, dance, and exercise. People, in turn have grown more sophisticated regarding health care. They count calories, milligrams of sodium in their diets, grams of protein, and perhaps even keep track of the air quality indexes. One way that people have grown sophisticated is that they understand that in most cases the critical factor is the amount of the substance which they ingest. They understand that everyone is exposed to some cancer causing agents, for instance, but that the likelihood of getting cancer is related to the amount of those agents. Similarly, many cigarette smokers know that the hazards of smoking are related to the amount of tobacco containing toxins that they ingest. Unfortunately, this sophisti
