Are "light" cigarettes safer than regular cigarettes?

No. The smoke from "light" cigarettes feels smoother and lighter on the throat and chest, but light cigarettes do not reduce the health risks of smoking.

The lower tar and nicotine numbers on light cigarette packs come from tests performed on "smoking" machines by tobacco companies. These numbers do not really tell how much tar and nicotine a smoker inhales because:

• The filters on light cigarettes have pinhole vents that allow air to mix with the smoke when the machine "puffs" on the cigarette. This causes the machine to measure artificially low tar and nicotine levels. Many smokers block these vents with their fingers or lips. This basically turns the light cigarette into a regular one.

• Smokers crave nicotine. To get more nicotine, they may inhale light cigarettes more deeply, take larger or more frequent puffs, or smoke a few extra cigarettes every day. Unlike people, a machine "smokes" all brands of cigarettes exactly the same way.

• The paper wrapped around light cigarettes can be made to burn faster than the paper wrapped around regular cigarettes. For this reason, the smoking machine gets in fewer puffs before the light cigarette burns down. The result is that the machine measures less tar and nicotine in the smoke from the cigarette.

The only way to reduce your health risks from smoking, and the risk to others around you, is to stop smoking completely. For personalized help with quitting, call the NCI Smoking Quitline at 1-877-44U-QUIT (1-877-448-7848) weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

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