Surveyed by phone, more than half the respondents said they’d like to see this information on cigarette packs and a quarter would like to have access to it online.
Of the 7,000 constituents of cigarette smoke, 93 in particular are quite toxic, said Dr Kurt M. Ribisl of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Centre at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
“It’s pretty surprising how relatively few people have heard of these yet many were interested in hearing more about them,” Ribisl told Reuters Health by phone.
The most simple and effective messaging may be to list the chemicals and, briefly, their health effects, he said. For example, cigarette smoke contains arsenic, which causes heart damage, and formaldehyde, which causes throat cancer.
Ribisl and colleagues surveyed nearly 5,000 US adults by phone, targeting high smoking/ low income areas and cell phone numbers.
Almost a quarter of respondents reported being smokers, most saying they had smoked every day for the past month.
