Some tobacco companies are now marketing tobacco products that are supposed to have lower levels of carcinogens. But that doesn't mean the people who use them are getting fewer carcinogens; they might just suck and chew more efficiently on the healthier products. A team from the University of Minnesota got a bunch of men to switch products and monitored their carcinogen levels.

What the researchers wanted to know: Does switching to a "reduced exposure" tobacco product decrease your exposure to carcinogens?

What they did: Men who use snuff, a kind of smokeless tobacco, or cigarettes switched either to the nicotine patch or to lower-carcinogen versions—the OMNI cigarette or a low-carcinogen variety of "snus," smokeless tobacco from Sweden. During the four-week long study, men visited the clinic once a week to pick up their drugs and give urine samples.

What they found: Snuff users who switched to low-carcinogen snus had a significant reduction in carcinogens. Smokers who switched to OMNIs took up fewer carcinogens. But men who switched to the patch had lower carcinogen levels than men on either of the other products.

What it means to you: Reduced-exposure tobacco products really do seem to reduce your exposure to carcinogens. Not as much as quitting entirely would, though—the reduced-exposure products still have a lot of carcinogens.

Caveats: The researchers could tell that 14 of the 38 patch users were cheating and left them out of some analysis, but they couldn't tell with the other study groups. Also, several men dropped out because they couldn't stick with the products they were assigned to.

Find out more: The American Cancer Socitey provides tips on how to quit smoking.

Read the article: Hatsukami, D.K. et al. "Evaluation of Carcinogen Exposure in People Who Used 'Reduced Exposure' Tobacco Products." Journal of the National Cancer Institute. June 2, 2004, Vol. 96, No. 11, pp. 844–852.

Abstract online: http://jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org