Research by a UC San Diego scientist is debunking claims that "low-tar" or "light" cigarettes are healthier than regular cigarettes. A study by Dr. David Burns finds that low-tar cigarettes do not reduce the chance of developing a smoking-related illness.

Dr. Burns, a professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, analyzed health data from smokers dating back 50 years.

“The bottom line in this report is that the low-tar cigarette is an illusion,” Dr. Burns said. “It's a deception."

There is no difference, according to the doctor, in the amount of tar and nicotine people get or in the risk of smoking when you use low tar and nicotine cigarettes.

"The low-tar cigarette is just as deadly as a full-flavored cigarette, perhaps more so," Dr. Burns said. “That’s because with a low-tar cigarette you tend to inhale more deeply in order to get the same dose of tar and nicotine.

There is also a different curing process for the tobacco than they used to have 30 years ago and that may be responsible for the increase in adenocarcinoma of the lung that we're seeing.” All lung cancer is deadly of course. Only 14 percent of people who develop lung cancer survive for 5 years.

In 1981, showed that people who smoked low-tar cigarettes were slightly less likely to get lung cancer. So the government told smokers that smoking “lights” was an option for those who couldn’t quit smoking altogether.

Everyone thought this would be a good idea. But five years before tobacco companies had internal reports that showed that there wasn't any difference in how much smoke you got if you smoked a Marlboro regular or a Marlboro light. “If we’d had had that information in 1981 we never would have given that advice," Dr. Burns said.

"It makes me angry,” he added. “Because I was the editor of the Surgeon General's report (that) recommended to people that if they couldn't quit, they should switch to these products."

The fallacy in that thinking was that when you switch from a high tar cigarette to a low tar cigarette, you usually increase the number of cigarettes that you smoke per day and the amount of smoke you draw in.

"So, we have had (all these) years of an illusion, of a deception of the American people,” Dr. Burns said. “The real tragedy is that people who were thinking about their health saw this as a safer choice.”

Dr. Burns said the research shows that the only proven way to reduce the disease risks from smoking is to quit.