CATHERINE JUN Elena Gaft, fourth-year
business-economics and German student, smokes.
By Hemesh Patel
Daily Bruin Staff
Ethnobotanists call tobacco the “filthy weed” and
estimate that humans have been addicted to it for 8,000 years
““ but research today is looking to prevent addiction.
New research is straying from looking at the biological effects
of tobacco and toward the behavioral impact nicotine produces.
Some studies even indicate that tobacco can be beneficial and
are concentrating on its effects on human behavior.
“Light smokers are less likely to become afflicted with
Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease,” said
fourth-year behavioral neuroscience graduate student, Janice
Carlson, who works with a professor of psychology studying how
nicotine affects the brain.
Experiments show that nicotine can inhibit the degeneration
caused by these two diseases.
With tobacco-related disease resulting in more than 450,000
deaths each year, according to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, the negative aspects far outweigh the positives to many
people.
“I would refute the argument that light smoking can be
beneficial,” said Susanne Hildebrand-Zanki, director of the
Tobacco Related Disease Program. “At this point in time, I
can absolutely say the harmful effects are so much severe than the
benefits.”
Because tobacco products contain other harmful agents such as
tar, use of nicotine as medicine in the future may be available in
the form of a patch or a pill rather than a cigarette.
Hildebrand-Zanki said smoking is the quickest way for nicotine
to reach the brain, and there really are no other methods that work
as quick. Further research would lead to medication with an
improved way nicotine approaches the brain.
Funding for this type of research at the University of
California, comes from the Tobacco Related Disease Program, which
receives an estimated $20 million a year, from a 25 cent tax on
tobacco products.
The amount the program receives, however, is declining because
the consumption of tobacco products is declining in the state,
Hildebrand-Zanki said.
Clinical trials are currently not being funded, instead
researchers are using rat, mice and monkey models to perform their
studies, whose applicability to humans is limited.
The Tobacco Related Disease Program allots 60 percent of its
fund toward biomedical research and 40 percent toward behavioral
research, or the effect tobacco products have on different aspects
of society.
Despite a lower amount of funding allotted toward behavioral
research, Roshan Bastani, associate director of the division of
cancer prevention and control at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer
Center, said researchers are concentrating less heavily on the
biological aspects of tobacco use.
“Everyone knows that smoking causes cancer, in terms of
the harmful (biological) effects of tobacco, there’s probably
not a lot more we can do,” Bastani said.
“Why is it so hard to quit? What promotes quitting?”
she asked. “Just telling people not to smoke won’t
work.”
Bastani studies different groups in the population, in terms of
age, profession and ethnicity.
For example, studies have found that Asian Americans in high
school tend to smoke less than other ethnic groups. But this group
has one of the highest smoking rates after high school.
A number of different reasons contribute to this, including
environment and upbringing. Another study, she said, indicates
African American smokers have a preference for menthylated
cigarettes.
“Why does this happen?” Bastani said. “One
reason may have to do with metabolism.”
Other researchers argue there is a deeper reason that lead to
tobacco use in adolescents.
Genetics play a major role in determining who becomes addicted
to nicotine and why, he said.
“Some believe social environment has everything to do with
it, but its more than that, its how people respond to nicotine
because not everyone responds to it in the same way,” said
Dr. Ralph Delfino, a professor at the UC Irvine college of
medicine.
Delfino is working to find out what psychological determinant
leads to smoking addiction, especially in adolescents.
Researchers feel there is still a lot more that needs to be done
in the field as new studies are finding a correlation of tobacco
with infertility, impotence and an increased risk for Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome.
“We know what we need to know, and we can’t back off
now,” Bastani said.