Cigarette price hike 'leads to More intense smoking'

Increasing the cost of Cigarettes may actually force smokers to smoke More intensely, an international researcher says. Francesca Cornaglia from the University of London will speak at the Australian National University in Canberra today to challenge several policies aimed at reducing the harm associated with smoking. Dr Cornaglia has measured cigarette exposure by examining the level of a by-product of nicotine, called coniine, found in saliva. She says smokers may buy fewer Cigarettes when the price goes up, but they inhale More deeply or smoke More of the cigarette to ensure nicotine levels in the body remain constant. "When that happens, the filter doesn't really work for the second half of the cigarette as good as it does for the first half because it has already absorbed tar and substances," she said. "So the second half of the cigarette actually gets filtered less properly than the first half."