CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 465Smoking Behavior and CessationChronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) ResearchPrenatal Substance Exposure Effects

Relation of nicotine yield of cigarettes to blood nicotine concentrations in smokers.

Open access
Russell, M A, Jarvis, M, Iyer, R, Feyerabend, C·1980·BMJ
DOI 10.1136/bmj.280.6219.972
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Blood nicotine and carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) concentrations were studied in 330 smokers (206 women and 124 men). Blood nicotine concentrations in individual smokers varied from 25 to 444 nmol/l (4 to 72 ng/ml). The average concentration, 203 nmol/l (33 ng/ml), was the same in the men and the women, although cigarette consumption was higher in the men. Despite large differences in nicotine yield, there was no relation between blood nicotine concentration and the type of cigarette smoked: smokers of plain, untipped cigarettes (1.9 mg nicotine), cigarettes with unventilated filters (1.3 mg nicotine), and cigarettes with ventilated filters (0.8 mg nicotine) had similar blood nicotine concentrations. Cigarette consumption was also similar in these three groups. The correlation between blood nicotine concentration and nicotine yield of cigarette, though significant, was low (0.21, p < 0.001), showing that the nicotine yield of the cigarettes accounted for only 4.4% of the variation in blood nicotine concentrations. Similarly, the low correlation of 0.30 between COHb concentration and cigarette consumption suggests that cigarette consumption accounted for only 9% of the variation in the amount of smoke taken into the smokers' lungs. These results suggest that the assumed health advantage of switching to lower-tar and lower-nicotine cigarettes may be largely offset by the tendency of smokers to compensate by increasing inhalation. The findings of epidemiological studies showing lower risks with filter-tipped cigarettes may be attributable to other factors such as biases in the samples and changes in the quality and carcinogenicity of tobacco tar, rather than to reduced tar intake.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1136/bmj.280.6219.972

Cites

28 of 28 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • These plasma nicotine levels are similar to those in human smokers who smoke about a pack of cigarettes daily (4 to 72 ng/ml).

    “These levels are comparable with those observed in human smokers (4 to 72 ng/ml) that smoke about a pack of cigarettes a day (31).”

    From Adolescent nicotine exposure transiently increases high-affinity nicotinic receptors and modulates inhibitory synaptic transmission in rat medial prefrontal cortex (2012) · cites this paper as [31]

    The section on nicotine intake reports blood concentrations ranging from 4 to 72 ng/ml in the smokers studied. But Table I in the Results gives their usual consumption as about 33–36 cigarettes per day, and the Discussion describes them as exceptionally heavy smokers. The source therefore supports the nicotine range, not the characterization of these smokers as smoking about a pack a day. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Subcutaneous nicotine injections (0.4 mg/kg) produce plasma nicotine levels comparable to those in human smokers, particularly adolescent smokers.

    “First, we showed that subcutaneous injections of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) lead to plasma nicotine levels that are comparable with those observed in human smokers (31).”

    From Adolescent nicotine exposure transiently increases high-affinity nicotinic receptors and modulates inhibitory synaptic transmission in rat medial prefrontal cortex (2012) · cites this paper as [31]

    The Results (Table I; page not specified in our copy) report blood nicotine concentrations in human smokers, and Subjects and methods says plasma nicotine was measured. The paper does not study 0.4 mg/kg subcutaneous injections or establish that they produce comparable levels; it also provides no finding specific to adolescent smokers. The Discussion cautions that its sample consisted of exceptionally heavy smokers, not representative smokers. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 31 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [2]2. Gori GB, Lynch CJ. Towards less hazardous cigarettes. J3AMA 1978; 240:1255-9.
  2. [3]3. 3World Health Organisat;on. Controlling the smoking epidemic. WHO Tech Rep Ser 1979;636. on 4 July 2023 by guest. Protected by copyright. http://www.bmj.com/ Br Med J: first published as 10.1136/bmj.280.6219.972 on 5 April 1980. Downloaded from
  3. [9]9. Schachter S. Nicotine regulation in heavy and light smokers. J Exp Psychol [Gen] 1977;106:5-12.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Russell, M. A., Jarvis, M., Iyer, R., & Feyerabend, C.
Affiliations
Maudsley Hospital (GB)
ORCID
Venue
BMJ
Publisher
BMJ
Published
1980-04-05
Volume
280
Issue
6219
Pages
972-976
ISSN
  • 0007-1447 (ISSN-L)
  • 1468-5833
DOI
10.1136/bmj.280.6219.972
OpenAlex
W2013217130
Cited by
465
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 16
FWCI
22.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.bmj.com/company/legal-information/terms-conditions/legal-information/tdm-licencepolicy (tdm)
Locations
  • BMJ (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Medical Research Council
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Prenatal Substance Exposure Effects
Keywords
nicotine yield, carboxyhemoglobin, cigarette smoking, cigarette filters, cigarette consumption, tobacco tar, sex differences
MeSH terms
Carboxyhemoglobin, Female, Humans, Male, Nicotine, Plants, Toxic, Sex Factors, Smoking, Tars, Nicotiana

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review