This study examines the effects of smoking little cigars in different groups of smokers. The investigators are focusing on differences in how smokers' bodies break down and eliminate nicotine from their systems. Some people are fast metabolizers of nicotine, meaning they break down and eliminate nicotine from their bodies more quickly. Other people are slower metabolizers meaning they break down and eliminate nicotine more slowly. The investigators are comparing these two groups of smokers when they switch to smoking cigars instead of cigarettes.
This study examines the effects of switching from cigarette to little cigar smoking on smoking behaviors and toxin exposure in fast and slow nicotine metabolizing smokers. We will recruit current smokers (split between slow and rapid nicotine metabolizing smokers) for a 20-day protocol. Participants will smoke their own brand cigarettes during a baseline 5 day period, followed by 15 days smoking little cigars. This study will use a validated, phenotypic marker of nicotine metabolism rate that may identify those individuals at greatest risk of harm exposure when using little cigars. This study will examine the compensatory effects of little cigars on smoking behaviors and toxin exposure among slow and rapid nicotine metabolizers.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
197
Participants smoke only little cigars for 15 days.
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Number of cigars consumed daily
The number of cigars smoked each day.
Time frame: 20 days
Carbon monoxide measurements
Time frame: Each study day 0, 5, 10, 15, 20
Nicotine metabolites from urine samples
Measures of NNK, mercapturic acid metabolites, total nicotine equivalents.
Time frame: 20 days
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