Benowitz N L, Hall S M, Herning R I, Jacob P, Jones R T, Osman A L
N Engl J Med. 1983 Jul 21;309(3):139-42. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198307213090303.
Advertisements suggest that smokers of cigarettes low in nicotine are exposed to less nicotine and tar. Nicotine yields are measured with smoking machines, but machines do not smoke cigarettes as people do. We therefore measured the actual nicotine content of commercial cigarettes with different nicotine and tar yields as determined with smoking machines, and also measured actual nicotine intake as indicated by blood concentrations of its metabolite, cotinine, in 272 subjects smoking various brands of cigarettes. We found that low-yield cigarette tobacco did not contain less nicotine; in fact, the nicotine concentration in tobacco inversely correlated (r = -0.53, P less than 0.05) with the concentration measured by smoking machines. Blood cotinine concentrations correlated with the number of cigarettes smoked per day but not with the nicotine yield measured by smoking machines. Only 3.8 to 5.0 per cent of total variance in blood cotinine was contributed by nicotine yield. We conclude that smokers of low-nicotine cigarettes do not consume less nicotine.
广告表明，吸食尼古丁含量低的香烟的人接触到的尼古丁和焦油较少。尼古丁含量是通过吸烟机测量的，但机器吸烟的方式与人类不同。因此，我们测量了不同尼古丁和焦油含量的商业香烟的实际尼古丁含量（这些含量是通过吸烟机测定的），并测量了272名吸食不同品牌香烟的受试者血液中尼古丁代谢物可替宁的浓度所表明的实际尼古丁摄入量。我们发现，低焦油含量香烟的烟草中尼古丁含量并不低；事实上，烟草中的尼古丁浓度与吸烟机测量的浓度呈负相关（r = -0.53，P < 0.05）。血液中可替宁的浓度与每天吸烟的数量相关，但与吸烟机测量的尼古丁含量无关。尼古丁含量仅占血液中可替宁总变异量的3.8%至5.0%。我们得出结论，吸食低尼古丁香烟的人摄入的尼古丁并不少。
