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Excerpts from: Nicotine linked to lung cancer

BBC News [11/28/00] BBC News | HEALTH | Nicotine linked to lung cancer

              Nicotine patches help wean smokers off tobacco
              Nicotine, the chemical which causes cigarette
              addiction, could be responsible for some lung
              cancers, suggest researchers.

              While this may concern people using nicotine
              patches to wean themselves off smoking,
              experts are keen to point out that the health
              benefits of giving up would still vastly outweigh
              the risks - even if the link was true.

              Most lung cancers are thought to be caused
              by other chemicals contained in smoke.

              But the latest findings, published in a US
              journal, suggest that nicotine alone can be
              converted into a chemical which has the
              potential to cause tumours.

              "This is speculative
              research - no-one has
              detected any cases of lung cancer from
              nicotine in humans," said Clive Bates, director
              of Action on Smoking and Health.

              "The biggest danger is that people will be put
              off nicotine patches and not use them, even
              though giving up smoking has a very large
              benefit to health," he told BBC News Online.

              Smokers who use nicotine replacement therapy
              (NRT) are twice as likely to manage to quit as
              those who attempt to give up unaided, he
              added.

             The findings are published in the Proceedings
              of the National Academy of Sciences.