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People with less money to burn on cigarettes suck them closer down to the butt than wealthier smokers, potentially harming their health more, a study suggests.
After measuring 3500 butts they picked up from the streets of Wellington suburbs ranging from poor to wealthy, Otago University researchers say smokers in the poor areas are clearly trying to extract the maximum nicotine they can get before lighting up afresh.
The university publicised the research yesterday, coinciding with the Government's announcement of reductions in smoking.
Among adults, 18.7 per cent were daily smokers in the 2006/7 Health Survey, down from 25.2 per cent from a decade earlier. For teenagers aged 14-15, the rate has dropped to 7 per cent, down from 16 per cent in 1999.
Today is World No Tobacco Day.
The prevalence of smoking is known to increase in line with a suburb's degree of socio-economic deprivation.
The Wellington researchers found the butts of tailor-made cigarettes from poor suburbs like Naenae were on average 4.5mm long, while the average in wealthy Karori and Wadestown was 7.5mm.
More than 6000 butts were collected, but only 3500 from manufactured cigarettes could be analysed; butts from roll-your-owns had deteriorated too much to be included.
One of the researchers, Dr Nick Wilson, said last night it was possible but unlikely smokers in poor areas were flicking their butts on the street more than those in wealthy areas.
"So we think the study does reflect actual smoking intensity."
He said overseas laboratory research using nicotine-deprived smokers found that as well as smoking more of the tobacco in each cigarette, they puffed more frequently than normal and took deeper breaths.
Dr Wilson said it would be logical if poor smokers puffed more and inhaled more deeply as leaving less tobacco.
"It's a fundamental law of economics: if you have got less money you are going to make more use of a particular product."
The paper is published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
