Black Teens More Affected by Nicotine

A new study has found that black U.S. teenagers are more affected by nicotine from a cigarette than their white classmates.

In the study, 61 white and 30 black adolescent smokers had a blood analysis to measure their levels of cotinine, a chemical product from the breakdown of nicotine. The black smokers seemed to more slowly metabolize, or break down, the nicotine from the cigarettes, leaving higher levels of cotinine, despite the fact that the black teens smoked only 15 cigarettes per day, compared to an average of nearly 20 a day for the white teens. The study was published in the January 2006 edition of the journal Ethnicity and Disease.

The study results remained statistically significant after controlling for smoking menthol cigarettes. Recent findings have suggested that menthol might increase the addictiveness of tobacco, and that menthol may play a role in inhibiting nicotine metabolism. Studies also have indicated that black smokers show a preference for menthol cigarettes compared to white smokers.

"Previous research in adults showed that black smokers take in 30 percent more nicotine per cigarette and take longer to rid their bodies of the drug, compared to white smokers,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (Bethesda, MD, USA; www.nida.nih.gov), which conducted the study. "These findings may constitute a strong warning to black youth to keep from smoking in the first place.”

"Our findings support the hypothesis that racial and ethnic differences in nicotine metabolism exist among adolescent smokers, with black teens smoking less but being exposed to as much nicotine as white teens,” said Dr. Eric Moolchan of NIDA's teen tobacco-addiction research clinic in Baltimore (Maryland, USA)