Nicotine is not Safe as it is Known

Did you know that nicotine is very dangerous? Researchers said in a study that nicotine, whether absorbed by smoking cigarettes or inhaling second-hand smoke, may promote tumor growth and the spread of breast cancer in women.

In laboratory tests researchers found that nicotine made breast cancer cells more likely to multiply and migrate. Such evidence also suggests that nicotine given to help people stop smoking should be used carefully. Scientists had thought before that other toxics and ingredients of cigarettes not nicotine cause cancer. But other recent evidence showed that nicotine may also play a big role in cancer.

Michael Thun, the head of epidemiology for the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, said: "Nicotine may have other adverse effects, in addition to addiction. What it all adds up to is that the best thing you can do is avoid exposure to tobacco smoke." The study on breast cancer cells was done in a lab dish rather than in the human body, so it's hard to tell what effect nicotine might have in people, said Chang Yan Chen, a research scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Nicotine is the main addictive drug in tobacco. About 66.5 million people, or about 29 percent of U.S. adults, use tobacco in cigarettes or other products, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Cigarette smoking causes almost 9 of 10 lung cancer deaths, according to the National Cancer Institute. Breast cancer affects about 13 percent of women, and is the second-largest cancer killer in U.S. women after lung cancer, according to the National Institutes of Health.