Needed: a cure for curing snuff.Needed: A cure for curing snuff Even when there's no smoke, tobacco can blacken black·en v. black·ened, black·en·ing, black·ens v.tr. 1. To make black. 2. To sully or defame: a scandal that blackened the mayor's name. 3. human health. Smokeless tobacco smokeless tobacco, n chewing tobacco (leaves) or tobacco powder (snuff) that allows the nicotine to be absorbed through the mucous membrane of the oral cavity or digestive tract. It is related to a high risk of oral cancer. , chiefly chewing plugs and snuff, has been linked to oral cancer, gum disease and nicotine addiction. In the United States, 12 million people were using it as of 1985. Chemist William J. Chamberlain of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Athens, Ga., and his colleagues report that the amount of potent carcinogens Carcinogens Substances in the environment that cause cancer, presumably by inducing mutations, with prolonged exposure. Mentioned in: Colon Cancer, Rectal Cancer called nitrosamines nitrosamines highly hepatotoxic compounds formed in the rumen by the combination of amines and nitrite. They do not appear to occur naturally in large quantities. Nitrosamine poisoning has also been caused by feeding nitrite-treated fishmeal and Solanum incanum. in smokeless tobacco hinges on a crucial step in the plant's growing and production process, namely curing. While the researchers detected, at most, trace amounts of nitrosamines in green tobacco plants, the compounds abound after curing. Moreover, they found that nitrosamine ni·tros·a·mine n. Any of a class of organic compounds present in various foods and other products and found to be carcinogenic and mutagenic in laboratory animals. levels in five types of fire-cured black tobacco were nearly double those in air-cured samples. Nitrosamines, essentially the only known cancer-causing agents in smokeless tobacco, are formed when nitrites from nitrogen fertilizers react with the plants' nicotine alkaloids alkaloids, n alkaline phytochemicals that contain nitrogen in a heterocyclic ring structure. They can have powerful pharmacological effects and are more often used in traditional medicine than in herbal treatments. . Chamberlain suggests that more air-cured tobaccos be used in smokeless tobacco blends, but he says he doubts that the industry will give up on fire-curing entirely since it is largely responsible for giving tobaccos their flavor. In a survey of products on the market, his group also found that snuff products have what he calls a high level of nitrosamines--17 micrograms per gram of tobacco--but he notes that this is lower than nitrosamine levels of four or five years ago. "So obviously, the tobacco companies are already doing something to lower these levels,' he says. |
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