Few smokers know how to add sugar to cigarettes

A new survey indicates that few smokers know that a certain amount of sugar is added to cigarettes. In addition, very few people realize that added sugar increases toxins in cigarette smoke, the researchers wrote in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
"The knowledge is strong and there is an obvious gap in consciousness," said Andrew Seidenberg, principal investigator at the University of North Carolina at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Cigarettes contain added natural sugar to reduce the smell of smoke and facilitate inhalation. It also increases the amount of harmful chemicals in the smoke and the potential for tobacco addiction, Sydenberg said. "Many participants told us that they wanted to know more about sugar in cigarettes, so there is a chance to teach people," he said.
Sidenberg and his colleagues interviewed 4350 adult smokers and used them via Amazon Microscope to participate in an online experiment on advertising for electronic cigarettes, which revealed that 5.5% of respondents were aware of the addition from sugar to cigarettes. Only 3.8% knew that added sugar to toxins was added to the smoke. "We were really surprised to see that almost all participants did not know that sugar was added to cigarettes," said Sidenberg.