Crack-Like Form of Nicotine Makes Some Cigarettes More Addictive Than Others
[08/13-1]
Excerpts from: Crack-like form of nicotine makes cigarettes more addictive
Sunday
Times.CO.ZA [08/03/03]
Some brands of cigarettes are far more addictive than others, according to new
research into the additives in tobacco products.
For the first time, scientists in the US have been able to measure the amount
of super-addictive "freebase" nicotine that cigarettes deliver to
smokers.
Freebase nicotine, like crack cocaine, is vaporised and passes rapidly through
the lungs into the bloodstream.
Scientists compared 11 brands in the US - some of which are available in South
Africa.
They found that some contained 10 to 20 times higher percentages of freebase
nicotine than experts had previously believed.
Brands were compared with a laboratory "reference" cigarette containing
1% freebase nicotine.
He found that on its own, nicotine would not be very potent in the body, but
ammonia strips away protons from molecules including nicotine, making it more
rapidly absorbed.
But the message from the industry was that cigarettes contained only small percentages
of freebase nicotine.
A spokesman for Phillip Morris, the maker of Marlboro, said : "Ammonia
is a compound naturally present in tobacco leaf.
"Quite simply, there is no safe cigarette. No one cigarette is any more
or less harmful or addictive than another.
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