More Cancer Chemicals In U.S. Cigarettes

Here’s one instance where made in the USA may not be a good thing and may convince you to stop smoking or quit smoking fast. A small study made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that American cigarettes have more cancer- causing chemicals than other cigarette brands made in other countries. rnResearchers said this is the worst possible way where smokers may get more bang for their buck. In this case, users are actually getting more TSNAs with every U.S. cigarette they smoke. This is short for tobacco-specific nitrosamines – the substances that cause cancer in tobacco. This is the first study that shows the high amount of TSNAs in American cigarettes compared to foreign-made cigarettes, according to Dr. Jim Pirkle, deputy director for science at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. This was determined after researchers analyzed over 2,000 cigarette butts and 126 smokers in five cities, namely, Waterloo, Ontario; Melbourne, Victoria (Australia); London, England, Buffalo, New York, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The ages of the test subjects were between 18 and 55. They smoked at least 10 cigarettes daily for a year and used certain brands for at least three months. The cigarettes studied were popular brands in the said countries. These included Players Light and DuMaurier in Canada; Marlboro, Newport Light, and Camel Light in the United States; Peter Jackson and Peter Stuyvesant in Australia; and Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut Purple in the United Kingdom. Upon comparing cigarette brands in the United States to those in Canada and Australia, researchers found that U.S. smokers had three times higher levels of TSNAs in their mouths. Mouth levels were measured because they indicate the amount of carcinogens that go into the lungs. This truly indicates that prolong smoking is really dangerous for health. So if still you can try not to smoke. Twice as much TSNAs were also found in the urine samples of U.S. smokers compared to those in Canada and Australia. This shows that the cancer-causing substances have travelled throughout the body – all the more reason why smokers should fast quit and fast stop smoking. While different types of tobacco are used in different countries, Pirkle said that the amount of TSNA depends largely on the way tobacco is cured. Other factors that contribute to high TSNA levels are the heating process, humidity and the type of the fertilizer used to grow the tobacco.