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Health consequences of smoking 1–4 cigarettes per day: response to G F Cope (eletter to journal)

¹ National Health Screening Service, Oslo, Norway
² Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

Correspondence to:
K Bjartveit
kjell.bjartveit@chello.no

Keywords: cigarette consumption; thiocyanate

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We thank Dr Graham F Cope for his valuable remarks, and agree that underreporting of daily cigarette consumption might be of importance when assessing the risk in light smokers.¹

Dr Cope refers to two papers: a cross sectional randomised study on smoking reduction in pregnant women, and an assessment of smoking status in patients with peripheral arterial disease.^2,3 Our study did not concentrate on subgroups in need of regular medical attention; it covered all residents aged 35–49 years, except people with a history or symptoms indicating cardiovascular diseases (among them peripheral arterial disease) and diabetes.⁴ A general population in the 1970s may be less inclined to underreport consumption, than present day pregnant women and sick people, who do not want to incur the disapproval of the healthcare professionals.

Based on a review and meta-analysis, Patrick and co-workers found that interviewer administered questionnaires, observational studies, reports by adults, and biochemical validation . . . [Full text of this article]