• In older advertisements, Philip Morris advertises that “light” cigarettes will make you feel better if you are sick; that your cough and symptoms will “disappear”. (www.smokingisugly.com). Now, the company's Web site states the following about "light and ultra-light" cigarettes: "…smokers should not assume, that lower-yielding brands are 'safe' or 'safer' than full-flavor brands.” (www.philipmorrisusa.com)
• Tobacoo companies want you to believe that Light & Mild cigarettes have less tar and nicotine than regular cigarettes, so they use machine-testing to calculate tar and nicotine. BUT humans don't smoke the way machines do. When humans smoke Light & Mild cigarettes, the nicotine and tar levels are the same as regular cigarettes.
• Light & Mild smokers "may actually increase their risk due to compensatory behavior" by taking more puffs per cigarette or by increasing the depth of their inhalation. (HealthDay-07/20/04)
• Statistics show that 87.5% of university/college smokers prefer L/M cigarettes
  

What do People Really Believe About Light & Mild cigarettes?
According to a study done in Geneva, Switzerland:

• Respondents estimated that one would have to smoke 2 light cigarettes or 4 ultralight cigarettes in order to inhale the same amount of nicotine as that in 1 regular cigarette.
• Most participants (60%) answered that the risk of lung cancer was the same, but 27% answered that this risk was lower in smokers of light cigarettes than in smokers of regular cigarettes.
• The most frequent answer (41% of answers) to an open-ended question on the meaning of the number of milligrams of nicotine printed on cigarette packs was that this number indicated the nicotine content in cigarettes, rather than a machine-determined yield in smoke.

Conclusion: Many smokers choose light cigarettes because they think that such cigarettes are safer or less addictive. The public should be further informed of the meaning and purpose of cigarette labels.
Information adapted from Preventative Medicine, January 2003, vol.36 no.1, Link