Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Study: U.S. Cigarettes Have More Cancer Agents

(CBS) U.S. cigarette brands expose smokers to higher levels of cancer-causing agents than brands from three other countries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in a new study.

The study found that, for the first time, the major carcinogens and cancer-causing agents in tobacco products, which researchers call tobacco-specific nitrosamines, were found in higher levels in U.S. cigarettes than in cigarettes from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

"We know that cigarettes from around the world vary in their ingredients and the way they are produced," Dr. Jim Pirkle, deputy director for science at the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Laboratory Sciences, said in a statement. "All of these cigarettes contain harmful levels of carcinogens, but these findings show that amounts of tobacco-specific nitrosamines differ from country to country, and U.S. brands are the highest in the study." ...

[Full Article]