Tobacco Toxicity

Conti-Fine BM, Navaneetham D, Lei S, and Maus AD (2000) Neuronal nicotinic receptors in non-neuronal cells New mediators of tobacco toxicity European Journal of Pharmacology 393(1-3) 279-294. 

Nicotine also can be considered a stimulant. It is known that vegetal nicotine has stimulating properties and modifies the expression of many keratinocyte markers in the body without clinical signs. Reno et al. report that nicotine plays a stimulative role in the expression of some important markers in oral mucosa keratinocytes in vivo. Such characteristics of nicotine can be used in mediated tobacco toxicity and cell proliferation research and diagnos-tics. " Moreover, it is reported presently that prenatal nicotine exaggerates the trigeminocardiac reflex. 

An alkaloid present in tobacco a very toxic compound sometimes used as an insecticide)... 

Aromatic Hydrocarbons. These are the most toxic of the hydrocarbons and inhalation of the vapor can cause acute intoxication. Benzene is particularly toxic and long-term exposure can cause anemia and leukopenia, even with concentrations too low for detection by odor or simple instmments. The currendy acceptable average vapor concentration for benzene is no more than 1 ppm. PolycycHc aromatics are not sufftcientiy volatile to present a threat by inhalation (except from pyrolysis of tobacco), but it is known that certain industrial products, such as coal tar, are rich in polycycHc aromatics and continued exposure of human skin to these products results in cancer. 

A material may be considered toxic if it has an adverse effect on health. Although it is often not difficult to prove that a material is toxic it is almost impossible to prove that a material is not toxic. Tobacco was smoked for many centuries before the dangerous effects of cigarette smoking were appreciated. Whilst some materials may have an immediate effect, others may take many years. Some toxic materials are purged out of the body and providing they do not go above a certain concentration appear to cause little havoc others accumulate and eventually a lethal dose may be present in the body. 

Chronic Pulmonary Toxicity Chronic damage to the lungs may be due to several subsequent exposures or due to one large dose that markedly exceeds the capacity of pulmonary defense, clearance, and repair mechanisms. Chronic pulmonary toxicity includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma, lung fibrosis, and lung cancer. The single most important reason for chronic pulmonary toxicity is tobacco smoke, which induces all types of chronic pulmonary toxicity, with the exception of fibrosis. 

Environmental tobacco smoke mid gasoline vapors both contain mixtures of trace luiiounts of many of the individual compounds regulated as Air Toxics under Title 111, section 112 of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendnmts. Much of the general public is more likely to be exposed to these mixtures during the course of their lives tlian to specific compounds on the air toxics list. Hence, estimation of the cancer risk resulting from exposure to these mixtures is a useful and relevant exercise. 

Nicotine is a component of Nicotiana tabacum, the tobacco plant. It is toxic to many insects because of its action upon the nicotinic receptor of acetyl choline. It has served as a model for a new range of insecticides, the neonicotinoids, which also act upon the nicotinic receptor (Salgado 1999). 

Typically, funding to embark on information and/or knowledge management initiatives within the life sciences only occurs after a serious failure within the business, such as a project failure or a withdrawal of a medicine from the market. Recently, COX-2 programs across the industry are under close scrutiny since the highly publicized withdrawal of Vioxx [10]. Of course, there has been no withdrawal of aspirin, paracetamol, alcohol, or tobacco products, which are well known as toxic. 

False. When someone smokes tobacco, the air becomes contaminated with tobacco smoke over a wide area. This can be particularly thick when several people smoke in the same room. This smoke contains high levels of toxic chemicals and can lead even in the non-smoker to all of the diseases associated with smoking. 

Boonyapookana, B., Parkplan, P., Techapinyawat, S., DeLaune, R.D., and Jugsujinda, A., Phytoaccumulation of lead by sunflower (Helianthus annum), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), and vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides), Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A—Toxic/Hazardous Substances and Environmental Engineering, 40 (1), 117-137, 2005. 

Cadmium is nutritionally non-essential, toxic and a ubiquitous environmental pollutant. It is found in leafy vegetables, grains and cereals, and since it is present in substantial amounts in tobacco leaves, cigarette smokers on a packet a day can easily double their cadmium intake. It has a long biological half-life (17-30 years in man), accumulates in liver and kidneys and its toxicity involves principally kidney and bone (Goyer, 1997).While Cd interferes primarily with calcium, it also interacts with zinc and can induce the synthesis of metallothionein. Cadmium bound to metallothionein in liver or kidney is thought to be non-toxic, but cadmium in plasma... 

Some heavy metal-tolerant bacterial strains and their sorption capacities for Cu and Cd are listed in Table 1. These bacteria show great potential for remediating soils that are contaminated with toxic metals. Our pot culture experiments showed that the growth of tobacco plants in a Cd-polluted Yellow Brown Soil (Alfisol) was significantly promoted by inoculating the soil with P. Putida in comparison with the non-inoculated soil (Fig. 2). 

Fig. 2. Remediation of Cd2+ toxicity by inoculation of P. putida and its effect on plant growth. (A) 15 day-old seedlings of tobacco (Nicotiana bentamiana) grown for 40 days in soils containing 150 pg Cd kg (B) same as A but inoculated with 10 cells of P. putida g, (C) control soil (not inoculated, but mixed with the same medium) (authors unpublished data, 2006).

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