IASLC: Hand-Rolled Cigarettes More Carcinogenic than Store Bought

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 4 -- Hand-rolled cigarette smokers appear to be at higher risk of lung cancer than those who smoke commercially manufactured brands, researchers found.

Onset of lung cancer was earlier among Norwegian smokers who primarily rolled their own cigarettes-at an average of 7.7 fewer pack-years of smoking history-compared with those who bought cigarettes at the store.

This despite the fact that hand-rolled users smoked substantially fewer cigarettes a day (P

Six percent of respondents had never smoked. Among smokers, the vast majority (88%) smoked hand-rolled rather than commercially manufactured cigarettes.

Compared with smokers of commercially prepared cigarettes, hand-rolled cigarette smokers reported:

• Fewer cigarettes per day on average (14.9 versus 19.8, P

This may also hold a lesson for other countries, Dr. Samet said.

"If there is a lack of uniformity of prices across tobacco products then there may be switching," he said. "I think the Norway example points to what must be done, which is to make sure that per cigarette smoke the price is the same for different products."

Nevertheless, "the message is going to be the same that the patient needs to stop smoking ? hand-rolled or manufactured," Dr. Dresler said.