Tuesday December 8, 15:08

Lung cancer: Attention to the first cigarette

The amount of nicotine ingested depends on time of the day when a person smokes his first cigarette

The time of the first cigarette smoking can have a major impact on lung cancer, according to a study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Blood levels of cotinine, a nicotine derivative produced by the body and causing risk of lung cancer depends on the time of smoking of the first cigarette.

The risk of contracting lung cancer would depend on this factor rather than the number of cigarettes smoked during the day.

Scientists from the University of Medicine, Penn State, Pennsylvania, have done their research on more than 250 smokers. They observed their behavior, and calculated levels of cotinine, in urine samples.

Smokers who consume a pack a day can have differences of cotinine in the blood from 16 to 1.80 milligrams per milliliter.

The earlier the first cigarette is smoked in the day, the more the amount of cotinine in the blood. Patients smoked their first cigarette five minutes after the alarm had an average cotinine levels of 437 milligrams per milliliter.

Patients smoked their first cigarette between 6 and 30 minutes after the alarm had an average of 352 milligrams of cotinine per ml of blood.

Patients smoking their first cigarette between 31 and 60 minutes after the alarm had an average of 229 milligrams of cotinine per ml of blood. Finally, those who smoke their first cigarette more than an hour after awakening would have an average of 215 milligrams of cotinine per ml of blood.

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