Smokers’ Awareness of Filter Ventilation, and How They Believe it Affects Them: Findings from the IT
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
King
B, Borland R, Le Grande M, et al.
Smokers’ Awareness of
Filter Ventilation, and How They Believe it Affects Them: Findings from the ITC
Four Country Survey.
Tobacco Control Published Online First: 15 June 2021. doi:
10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056134
Background. Filter
ventilation creates sensations of ‘lightness’ or ‘smoothness’ and is also
highly effective for controlling machine-tested yields of tar, nicotine and
carbon monoxide. Nearly all factory-made cigarettes (FMC) now have filter
ventilation in countries such as Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.
Research conducted before ‘light’ and ‘mild’ labelling was banned found low
smoker awareness of filter ventilation and its effects. This study explores
current levels of awareness of filter ventilation and current understanding of
its effects in these four countries.
Methods.
We used data from the 2018 wave of the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping
Survey with samples from USA, England, Canada and Australia. Analyses were
conducted initially on a weighted sample of 11 844, and subsequently on 7541
daily FMC smokers.
Findings.
Only 40.3% of all respondents reported being aware of filter ventilation. Among
daily FMC smokers, only 9.4% believed their cigarettes had filter ventilation.
Believing that their usual cigarettes are smoother was positively associated
with believing they are also less harmful. Both these beliefs independently
predict believing their cigarettes are ventilated (smoother OR=1.97 (95% CI
1.50 to 2.59) and less harmful OR=2.41 (95% CI 1.66 to 3.49) in relation to
those believing each characteristic is average.
Interpretation.
Awareness of filter ventilation is currently low, despite decades of public
‘education efforts around the misleading nature of ‘light’ and ‘mild”
descriptors. Few smokers realise that their cigarettes almost certainly are
vented. Smokers who believed their cigarettes have filter ventilation were more
likely to believe they were both smoother and less harmful. Awareness of the
technology appears to be insufficient to prevent smokers being deceived by it.
Filter ventilation is inherently misleading to smokers and it is time to ban
it.
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