Study Questions Anti-Smoking Products

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 22, 2001 -- Anti-smoking therapies and modified tobaccoproducts have the potential to reduce the danger of smoking, butnot enough is known about their use to be certain, a research panelsaid today.

A variety of products have come on the market in recent years,promoted to help people stop smoking or reduce tobacco usage. Theserange from nicotine replacement gum, patches, inhalers and nasalspray to cigarette-like products that produce less smoke and evenmodified tobacco with fewer toxic chemicals.

About 48 million Americans smoke, a practice that kills 400,000each year. Smoking causes heart disease and lung diseases likeemphysema and lung cancer and increases people's risks of othercancers.

The Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy ofSciences, studied the products intended to help people quit smokingat the request of the Food and Drug Administration.

In a report titled "Clearing the Smoke," an institutecommittee concluded that the products "are potentiallybeneficial" but said not enough is known about results of theiruse to reach a conclusion on their health impact.

"We believe that it may be possible to reduce harm from tobaccouse with new products, but we frankly do not know the healtheffects of the various products on the market that claim to dothis," Stuart Bondurant, chairman of the panel that prepared thereport, said in a statement.

Bondurant is a professor of medicine at the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill.

Danger of Encouraging Smoking

Use of the products could potentially reduce individuals'exposure to tobacco, the report said, but the end result depends onthe actions of the individual. These have not been sufficientlystudied, it said.

The committee indicated the possibility that some products couldeven increase danger by encouraging smoking. For example, some ofthe products still contain tobacco, and people might use others asa way to cut back on smoking but not to quit altogether.

Tobacco specialists have been debating the value of cutting backversus quitting smoking. When people quit, their bodies starthealing, and some have speculated that cutting back on smoking alsocould be helpful.

A recent Mayo Clinic study indicated, however, that just cuttingback instead of quitting won't help. The surprise finding showedlevels of toxins in heavy smokers' bodies did not decrease whenthey cut smoking in half.

Some Smokers Inhaling Deeper

The Institute of Medicine report noted that filter cigarettesand low-yield cigarettes were once thought to offer reduced dangerby cutting back on the nicotine and other chemicals smokersinhaled. But studies found that at least some smokers changed theirsmoking patterns, inhaling deeper, to get the same amount ofnicotine and other chemicals.

The panel called for regulation of products designed to helppeople stop smoking along with increased research into the productsand their effects.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private institutionchartered by Congress to provide scientific and medical advice tothe government.