Table 8.21 shows the dramatic reduction in the tar yield of cigarettes over the period during which the GHS has been collecting information about brand smoked. In 1986, 40% of those who smoked manufactured cigarettes smoked ones yielding more than 15mg of tar per cigarette. In the following ten years, the proportion smoking this type of cigarette fell to zero. Initially, this was partly due to smokers switching to lower tar brands, but the main factor has been that manufacturers have been required to reduce substantially the tar yields of existing brands. Indeed, since the mid-1990s, no manufactured cigarettes sold in Great Britain have had a tar yield of more than 15mg. Although there has been a shift towards the cigarettes with the lowest tar yield, the biggest increase has been in what used to be the middle category – cigarettes with a tar yield of 10 but less than 15mg. The proportion smoking cigarettes in this group rose from 32% in 1986 to 61% in 2000.

In 2000, smokers of manufactured cigarettes were most likely to smoke cigarettes in what is now the highest yield category, 12 but less than 15 mg; 35% of men and 33% of women smoked brands yielding this level of tar. Such brands were particularly likely to be smoked by the youngest smokers: two fifths of smokers aged 16 to 19 did so.

There was also a difference in tar yield of cigarettes smoked according to the smoker’s socio-economic group.

• Cigarettes with the highest tar yield were more likely to be smoked by those in manual socio-economic groups than by those in non-manual groups: 39% of men and 38% of women in manual groups smoked these cigarettes, compared with only 30% of men and 27% of women smokers in non-manual groups.
• Conversely, smokers in non-manual groups were more likely to smoke cigarettes with the lowest tar yield, less than 4 mg.