Chapter 03

Nicotine addiction results in smokers seeking to take in a constant level of nicotine from smoking each day (Benowitz, 1988; U.S. DHHS, 1988). Consequently, when faced with low-yield cigarettes, smokers tend to take in more nicotine and other tobacco smoke constituents from these cigarettes than would be predicted by machine testing in order to sustain optimal levels of nicotine intake. This phenomenon of taking in similar levels of nicotine from day to day has been termed ‘regulation' or ‘titration’ of nicotine intake. The behavior of smoking cigarettes of different machine yields more or less intensively, and/or smoking more or fewer cigarettes to achieve a particular intake of nicotine, has been called ‘compensation’. If regulation of nicotine intake is precise, that is, compensation is complete, then switching to low-yield cigarettes would not be expected to reduce exposure to tobacco toxins, nor to reduce the risk of disease from smoking.