An American anti-tobacco campaigner claims to have found a link between US-made cigarettes and his country's higher than average death rate from lung cancer.
A new study suggests that the risk of getting lung cancer from smoking has increased over time due to changes in cigarette design.
According to David Burns and Christy Anderson of the University of California, up to one half of current lung cancer occurrence could be attributable to cigarette design.
Consequently, the study concludes, lung cancer rates could be reduced by up to 50 percent through additional regulatory control of cigarette composition.
The study examined lung cancer rates and changes in the design and smoke composition of both American and Australian cigarettes over the last four decades.
Both countries saw a rise in the use of low tar cigarettes, as well as the introduction of ventilated filters.
The major known difference in cigarettes between the two countries is the level of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, a lung-specific carcinogen that causes adenocarcinoma - one of the four major cell types of lung cancer. Nitrosamines are found in far higher levels in American cigarettes than in Australian cigarettes, the study reports.
Sutton said today's presentation of the study did not give enough data to explain why the level of nitrosamines may be higher in American-grown tobacco versus Australian-grown tobacco.
"It's impossible to get a significant conclusion," he said. "When the full study is published, we'll evaluate it."
"There is no safe cigarette," he said.