Ammonia boosts nicotine from smoke
By Sid Perkins
UPI Science News
WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- Research shows that ammonia in cigarette
tobacco can boost the availability of nicotine from the smoke up to 100
times.
This study is the first to publicly confirm suspicions brought to light
during Congressional hearings into the tobacco industry. The research, led
by Dr. James F. Pankow at the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and
Technology in Portland, appears in the August issue of the journal
Environmental Science & Technology.
Pankow says the tobacco industry maintains ammonia is added to cigarette
tobacco for several reasons, including enhancement of flavor. However,
critics of the industry have suggested ammonia is added to tobacco to
increase its addictiveness.
Adding ammonia to cigarette tobacco converts nicotine to its "free-base"
form. The new research shows this enhances its evaporation from the smoke
particles and makes it more readily available to the smoker. Pankow points
out ammonia is used in a similar process to convert "street" cocaine into
its free-base form.
Pankow says free-base nicotine is much more soluble in body tissue than
unconverted nicotine and would therefore be absorbed into the smoker's
body more rapidly.
Although the study shows that ammonia boosts the nicotine available from
cigarette smoke, Pankow cautions that more work is needed to prove this
leads to a smoker's more rapid uptake of nicotine.
Pankow says this research indicates that any future regulation of
cigarettes should address tobacco additives as well as nicotine.
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