Lights (cigarette type)

Cigarettes labeled as Lights, Milds, or Low-tar, are considered to have a lighter, less pronounced flavour than regular cigarettes. These cigarette brands may also contain lower levels of tar, nicotine, or other chemicals inhaled by the smoker. However, the scientific evidence is that switching from regular to light or low-tar cigarettes does not reduce the health risks of smoking or lower the smoker's exposure to the nicotine, tar, and carcinogens present in cigarette smoke.

The filter design, which may include perforated holes, is one of the main differences between light and regular cigarettes. In some light cigarettes, the filter is perforated with small holes that theoretically diffuse the tobacco smoke with clean air. In regular cigarettes, the filter does not include these perforations. In ultra-light cigarettes, the filter’s perforations are even smaller, and in theory, these smaller holes produce an even smaller smoke to air ratio.

Usage of descriptors such as "light" or "mild" has been banned in the European Union, Australia, Malaysia, Philippines and the United States. Tobacco manufacturers in some countries with this type of legislation are turning to colour-coding to allow consumers to differentiate between regular and light brands.

The 1950s gave birth to numerous scientific studies that proved the link between cigarettes and cancer (see Wynder and Graham, 1950; Doll and Hill, 1952, 1954; Hammond and Horn, 1958). In response to these studies and their perceived threat to the tobacco industry's future profitability, tobacco companies experimented with new modifications to the cigarette design. By altering the cigarette design, tobacco companies hoped to create a "safer" cigarette that would better appeal to their increasingly health-conscious consumers. The addition of filters was one of the industry's first design modifications, and filters would become essential to the later development of light and low-tar products. Claiming that filtered cigarettes literally "filtered out" much of the harmful tar and carcinogenic particles found in regular cigarettes, tobacco companies promoted "relative product safety" in order to convince smokers to continue smoking. Because filtered cigarettes were depicted as relatively safer and less harmful, smokers who were concerned about tobacco's negative health impacts were led to believe that by switching to filtered cigarettes, they would minimize smoking's detrimental impact on their health. As a result, millions of smokers switched to filtered cigarettes instead of quitting altogether. By 1960, filtered cigarettes had become the leading tobacco product.

In addition to promoting the filtered cigarette as the answer to smokers' health concerns, the tobacco industry also poured resources into developing a cigarette that would produce lower machine-measured tar and nicotine yields when tested by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This endeavor resulted in the introduction and heavy promotion of "light" cigarettes during the 1970s. The newly designed light cigarette employed a special filter perforated with small holes; these perforated filters allegedly offset the concentration of inhaled harmful smoke with clean air. Most important to the tobacco industry, however, was that light cigarettes produced lower tar and nicotine levels when tested with the FTC's smoking machines.

...
Wikipedia