A Boston University professor is challenging a recent Harvard School of Public Health study that reported cigarette companies have been increasing nicotine levels in cigarettes since 1997.
The Harvard study reported an 11 percent increase in nicotine levels in cigarettes over the past seven years, according to data compiled by cigarette manufacturers and tobacco companies, including Philip Morris USA.
In questioning the results, BU School of Public Health professor Michael Siegel said the study is misleading to the public.
Siegel, who has studied tobacco control for 21 years, said he does not challenge the study’s findings, which were released Jan. 18, agreeing that nicotine levels have generally increased. However, he disagreed with the study’s report that tobacco company Marlboro increased its cigarettes’ nicotine levels.
“I was intrigued by this topic because [Harvard] concluded that Marlboro was increasing their nicotine yield and Philip Morris released that the 2006 level was equal to the 1997 level,” he said. “You don’t usually see that kind of a debate. Why was there this direct contradiction? . . . The only way to resolve it was to look at the data myself.”
Siegel said he looked at the reports for the 16 sub-brands of Marlboro and extended the Harvard study through 2006, while cigarette manufacturers and tobacco companies had only studied up to 2005. He found that the Marlboro nicotine counts at the beginning and end of the 10-year period were the same, which he said is important because “40 percent of the market is Marlboro.”
“I don’t see how you could possibly conclude that it has gone up,” Siegel said. “It’s no higher now than it was nine years ago . . . The data is publicly available.”
Siegel said the issue was larger than a data discrepancy because the Harvard study was misleading, implying that while raising nicotine levels is a bad practice, lowering nicotine levels would increase cancer rates because smokers would increase puffs to get more nicotine and “get a higher tar delivery.”
“What a lot of the anti-smoking groups are saying is that the cigarette companies are increasingly trying to addict their customers to cigarettes,” he continued. “It’s not as simple as that.”
Siegel questioned nicotine’s addictive qualities and said the study “distracts the public attention from the real issue, which is whether we as a society want the companies to produce an addictive product.”