The Availability of Low-Nicotine Cigarettes as a Cause of Cigarette Smoking among Teenage Females

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Abstract
The incidence of cigarette smoking among teenage females has greatly increased during the past decade. This increase may have been encouraged by the increasing availability of low-nicotine cigarettes. Recent research has shown that physiological response to nicotine level is an important factor in whether and when people choose to smoke cigarettes. Analysis of a survey of students in a suburban high school suggests that females (as compared with males) experience a greater social pressure to smoke and a greater physiological pressure not to smoke stemming from a higher sensitivity to nicotine. Females apparently resolve these conflicting pressures by becoming lighter smokers than males and by switching to low-nicotine cigarettes. An implication of this process is that if low-nicotine cigarettes were less available, it is likely that many females would choose not to smoke rather than experience unpleasant nicotine-overdose reactions.

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