Nicotine gum 'cancer risk'

The cancer risk from using nicotine gum and lozenges is higher than previously thought, The Times has reported.

[JAF]

What a crock!

[Silent Bob7]

I am not surprised, as nicotine is a poison and a known carcinogen in any form. If you feel compelled to use any nicotine-based crap to help you quit smoking you have to use it as briefly as possible, because it offers the same risks as smoke or chewing tobacco.

Human bodies can react to the same chemicals in different ways from one another, but the single most important thing in quitting smoking is: to have your MIND determined to quit, or nothing will help you.

[Mazed]

Silent Bob7 wrote:

I am not surprised, as nicotine is a poison and a known carcinogen in any form. If you feel compelled to use any nicotine-based crap to help you quit smoking you have to use it as briefly as possible, because it offers the same risks as smoke or chewing tobacco.

No, I have to take exception to that one. It offers the same risks as THE NICOTINE in smoked or chewed tobacco. The risks inherent in conventional tobacco use go well beyond those posed by nicotine itself.

It is pretty common for the rabid anti-regulation crowd to overlook this distinction, but the tack surprises me from any other source.

[Lil Ticked]

http://www.healthline.com/blogs/smoking_cessa...
Lead investigator Dr. Virginia Reichert said that the majority of smokers -- 72 percent of women and 59 percent of men -- believed that nicotine causes cancer. In addition, 72 percent of women and 63 percent of men smoked "light" cigarettes, thinking this would lower their intake of nicotine and thus lower their risk of cancer.

"Just the opposite is true," Reichert told Reuters Health. "Nicotine does not cause cancer, but that is why patients are reluctant to use patches to help them quit
http://www.data-yard.net/30/asthma.htm
Department of Clinical Sciences, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Centre for Epidemiology, National Board of Health and Welfare, Stockholm and Department of Public Health and Clinical Sciences, Umea University, Umea, Sweden.

BACKGROUND: Earlier studies have given conflicting results regarding the effect of exposure to tobacco smoke on atopic sensibilization. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of present and former smoking habits in relation to atopic disorders from data on 6909 young and middle-aged adults (16-49 years) and their 4472 children (3-15 years) from the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions in 1996-97. RESULTS: The prevalence of allergic asthma and allergic rhino-conjunctivitis decreased, in a dose-response manner (P = 0.03 and P = 0.004, respectively), with increasing exposure to tobacco smoke in the adult study population. This pattern was little changed when potential confounders (sex, age, education, domicile, country of birth) were entered into a multivariate analysis: the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for allergic rhino-conjunctivitis was 0.5 (0.4-0.7) for those who smoked at least 20 cigarettes a day and OR 0.7 (0.6-0.9) for those smoking 10-19 cigarettes, compared with those who reported that they never had smoked Former smokers had a tendency for a slightly lower risk: OR 0.9 (0.8-1.0). In a multivariate analysis, children of mothers who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day tended to have lower odds for suffering from allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, allergic asthma, atopic eczema and food allergy, compared to children of mothers who had never smoked (ORs 0.6-0.7). Children of fathers who had smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day had a similar tendency (ORs 0.7-0.9). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates an association between current exposure to tobacco smoke and a low risk for atopic disorders in smokers themselves and a similar tendency in their children. There is a need for further studies with a prospective design to certify the causal direction of this association. Smoking habits and atopic disorder in parents should not be considered independent variables in epidemiological studies of the connection between exposure to tobacco smoke and atopy in children.

[Silent Bob7]

Oh, MY BAD! Nicotine is GOOD for your now! I will detract the words "known carcinogen" from my statement because nicotine is now on the "safe list", like Saccharin (which has been fought about for years). TIME WILL TELL. Nicotine replacement products have not even existed long enough to know the (real) long-term effects, but trust in your researchers & their school grants!

I need a nice & safe glass of ice cold NICOTINE PEPSI, yummm!

[Silent Bob7]

A few more words on nicotine gum & patches: I have watched people torture themselves repeatedly with those products, while trying to quit (to no avail). If you want to research something, take a look at WHO OWNS the companies that sell nicotine replacement products! HELLO! It is the tobacco companies! They make a ton of dough selling that garbage to people who try and try to quit, and keep coming back for more.

Tobacco companies would like you to believe that nicotine is safe, no doubt about that. How much money would they pay to promote such studies? Hmmm, helps to disguise the addictive properties, now doesn't it?

[Enough]

So many people start using nicotine gum,then get hooked on it and use it for years.I read that it is not harmful,but wouldn't bet on it.I believe the only way to quit is to want to.Many think of quiting as a hardship,like they are punishing themselves.I wonder if that mindset does not work against them,and cause them to fail. I smoked heavy for almost 50 years,had to quit,used the patch and found it helped. If you WANT to quit you probably can. Not easy maybe, but doable.

[Silent Bob7]

Enough wrote:

So many people start using nicotine gum,then get hooked on it and use it for years.I read that it is not harmful,but wouldn't bet on it.I believe the only way to quit is to want to.Many think of quiting as a hardship,like they are punishing themselves....

Amen, brother!(or sister!) The voice of reason! I always did get along with you Canucks ;-)

[just candid]

Silent Bob7 wrote:

I am not surprised, as nicotine is a poison and a known carcinogen in any form. If you feel compelled to use any nicotine-based crap to help you quit smoking you have to use it as briefly as possible, because it offers the same risks as smoke or chewing tobacco.
Human bodies can react to the same chemicals in different ways from one another, but the single most important thing in quitting smoking is: to have your MIND determined to quit, or nothing will help you.

Take cigarette butts & soak them in water overnight, then pour off the water and you have a great bug killer for most garden bugs.

[Silent Bob7]

just candid wrote:

<quoted text>Take cigarette butts & soak them in water overnight, then pour off the water and you have a great bug killer for most garden bugs.

Good point! I will "stick to my guns" about nicotine being a poison, thats hard to dispute. I have heard about the same cigarette butt soaking technique being used to produce blow-dart poisons as well! I also understand that nicotine is as poisonous as arsenic, milligram for milligram.

Sounds like a SAFE substance to me, sure! It won't cause cancer, either. No Sir-ee Bob!

[Mazed]

Enough wrote:

So many people start using nicotine gum,then get hooked on it and use it for years.

How many?

[Lil Ticked]

Mazed wrote:

<quoted text>
How many?

enough, lol

[Mazed]

Lil Ticked wrote:

<quoted text>enough, lol

Seems to me you are arguing above that the gum can't be a cancer risk because you believe that nicotine is not carcinogenic.

That isn't likely to make you popular with the crowd using every opening to demonize the smoking cessation industry.

Must be a tough decision whether to trash the one when that would support the trashing of the other.

[Lil Ticked]

Mazed wrote:

<quoted text>
Seems to me you are arguing above that the gum can't be a cancer risk because you believe that nicotine is not carcinogenic.
That isn't likely to make you popular with the crowd using every opening to demonize the smoking cessation industry.
Must be a tough decision whether to trash the one when that would support the trashing of the other.

I support people using what they want to use. If they want to quit more power to them. If they want to continue smoking then more power to them as well.
I have nothing against the gum. I just don't like them distributing it to children with out parental consent.

[Mazed]

Enough wrote:

Many think of quiting as a hardship,like they are punishing themselves.I wonder if that mindset does not work against them,and cause them to fail.

I think there is a certain amount of cringe factor in the underlying disbelief in personal ability to quit. The anticipation of failure, along with the expectation of withdrawal symptoms, has a lot to do with the negative approach you note.

It probably does undermine many efforts.

[Lil Ticked]

Mazed wrote:

<quoted text>
I think there is a certain amount of cringe factor in the underlying disbelief in personal ability to quit. The anticipation of failure, along with the expectation of withdrawal symptoms, has a lot to do with the negative approach you note.
It probably does undermine many efforts.

Why Quit what is enjoyed?

[Enough]

Lil Ticked wrote:

<quoted text>Why Quit what is enjoyed?

FREEDOM from giving your money to tobacco companies. From having to stand outside to smoke.From having your clothes stink. Freedom from a host of health problems,besides several cancers. Freedom to not need or want a smoke every 10 or so minutes. You know what there is to enjoy,but like so many you let your addiction to nicotine cloud and control your judgement.I am NOT bashing you.I was a heavy smoker for many years,so understand.But if you quit you will have a rediscovered freedom that will amaze you.Don't quit for any other reason but because YOU Want To.

[Lil Ticked]

Enough wrote:

<quoted text> FREEDOM from giving your money to tobacco companies. From having to stand outside to smoke.From having your clothes stink. Freedom from a host of health problems,besides several cancers. Freedom to not need or want a smoke every 10 or so minutes. You know what there is to enjoy,but like so many you let your addiction to nicotine cloud and control your judgement.I am NOT bashing you.I was a heavy smoker for many years,so understand.But if you quit you will have a rediscovered freedom that will amaze you.Don't quit for any other reason but because YOU Want To.

I hate to tell you this but everything can be an addiction and over indulging in those addictions can be harmful to your health. Anything from sex, sugar, eating, drinking, sleeping, working, exercising. I have seen people addicted to each of those things.
We all have our vices to choose from but everything in moderation.
I don't plan on quitting that which I enjoy and that is my freedom.
I do not desire to be pushed in to thinking that I have to give up that which I enjoy because others may disapprove. You say that you are not bashing and you say to quit because I want to but, you push to the point of trying to shame me and saying that I don't know what is the best thing to do because my addiction blinds me. Once again ...I LIKE TO SMOKE! I LIKE CANDY! I LIKE SEX! I LIKE A LOT OF THINGS! Choice is freedom.

[Mazed]

Lil Ticked wrote:

<quoted text>I LIKE TO SMOKE! I LIKE CANDY! I LIKE SEX! I LIKE A LOT OF THINGS! Choice is freedom.

How many of these things push everything else from your mind until you find a way to indulge what, 20 times a day? 30? More? Less?

Any time a substance has that kind of control over your thought processes, choice is at least a questionable commodity.

Are you free to do--and fully enjoy--things which require you to go without smoking for a weekend? Or would you simply assume your personal right to cheat?

[Rufus]

Lil Ticked wrote:

<quoted text>I hate to tell you this but everything can be an addiction and over indulging in those addictions can be harmful to your health. Anything from sex, sugar, eating, drinking, sleeping, working, exercising. I have seen people addicted to each of those things.
We all have our vices to choose from but everything in moderation.
I don't plan on quitting that which I enjoy and that is my freedom.
I do not desire to be pushed in to thinking that I have to give up that which I enjoy because others may disapprove. You say that you are not bashing and you say to quit because I want to but, you push to the point of trying to shame me and saying that I don't know what is the best thing to do because my addiction blinds me. Once again ...I LIKE TO SMOKE! I LIKE CANDY! I LIKE SEX! I LIKE A LOT OF THINGS! Choice is freedom.

If you feel pushed,that was not my intention.Still I think what I said was true,but I defend your right to have Freedom of choice.