# LOW-YIELD CIGARETTES LESS HAZARDOUS

> **NIH NIH R01** · KAISER FOUNDATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE · 1989 · $227,912

## Abstract

We here propose to continue for five years a prospective study that seeks
to determine whether smoking cigarettes with a low yield of tar and
nicotine is less hazardous than smoking cigarettes with a higher yield of
tar and nicotine.  The current study began in 1979.  By the end of our
recent five-year contract in December, 1983, 95,183 people undergoing
multiphasic health checkups in two Kaiser-Permanente Medical Care Program
facilities filled out questionnaires detailing their past and current use
of tobacco products.  In the proposed five-year extension of this project,
we will continue for two years to administer smoking questionnaires in this
setting, eventually identifying 30,000 current cigarette smokers and 70,000
never tobacco users for further study.  We will use mailed questionnaires
and telephone interviews to follow at three to five year intervals the
current, regular cigarette smokers to ascertain changes in their smoking
habits.  We will ascertain the occurrence of hospitalizations through 1988
in Kaiser-Permanente facilities for diseases associated in previous studies
with cigarette smoking in current, regular cigarette smokers and never
tobacco users using computer-stored discharge records validated by chart
review.  We will ascertain mortality through 1987 in the current, regular
tobacco users and the never tobacco users using the National Death Index.

In 1989, we will carry out a comprehensive analysis of the data.  First, we
will study the relation of cigarette yield to total mortality in the
current, regular smokers to determine overall the relative risk of higher
yield cigarettes.  Second, we will examine the relation of yield to
mortality and the incidence of hospitalization for lung cancer, other
smoking-related cancers, acute myocardial infarction, other coronary heart
disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and peptic ulcer disease in
the current, regular cigarette smokers to determine the relative risk of
higher yield cigarettes for these specific conditions.  Third, we will
compare total mortality, cause-specific mortality, and the incidence of
hospitalization for the above diseases in smokers of very low yield
cigarettes (less than 8 mg tar) with that in never tobacco users to
determine the relative risk of smoking very low yield cigarettes compared
with not smoking at all.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3173576
- **Project number:** 5R01CA036074-05
- **Recipient organization:** KAISER FOUNDATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** GARY D FRIEDMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1989
- **Award amount:** $227,912
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1985-01-01 → 1990-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3173576

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3173576, LOW-YIELD CIGARETTES LESS HAZARDOUS (5R01CA036074-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3173576. Licensed CC0.

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