University of Michigan
412 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399
Contact: Travis Paddock
Phone: (734) 936-7293
E-mail: [email protected]
Current U-M Research on Tobacco and Nicotine
EDITORS: University of Michigan researchers are examining the effects of tobacco, nicotine, the industries that support their production and the public health issues that develop from tobacco use. These programs deal with virtually every area of tobacco research, from the physiological effects of nicotine, to teen smoking, to legal and financial issues.
TEEN SMOKING New study will focus on how and why of youth smoking Researchers at the U-M School of Public Health are investigating how policy makers can reverse the trend in youth smoking. This study focuses on why some children begin to smoke, why others never start, and how society can reduce the use of tobacco products by children.
Peter Jacobson, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, and Kenneth Warner, the Richard D. Remington Collegiate Professor of Public Health in the same department, will bring together information on how children gain access to tobacco and how various programs and laws have sought to restrict that access. They will also examine and evaluate strategies for reducing youth smoking that are already in effect. Contact James Matthew Wilson at (734) 764-7260 or via electronic mail at [email protected]
Study has monitored trends in teen smoking since 1975; latest years show rise The Monitoring the Future Study has been tracking the smoking habits of 12th-grade students annually since 1975 and the habits of 10th- and eighth-grade students since 1991. Administered by researchers at the U-M Institute for Social Research, the questionnaires survey more than 50,000 students from across the nation.
The study examines gender, race, college plans, parental education and income, region and population density, availability of tobacco, and attitudes about pack-a-day and risks of smoking.
Results for 1996, released by U-M social psychologists Lloyd Johnston, Patrick O'Malley and Jerald Bachman, indicate that cigarette smoking has risen in all age groups for the fifth year in a row; 10 percent among eighth- and 10th-graders between 1995 and 1996. Moreover, 21 percent of all eighth-graders smoked a cigarette once in the previous 30 days, as did 30 percent of 10th-graders, and 34 percent of 12th-graders. Compared to the rate of 25 percent among the adult population, these numbers are alarmingly high, say the researchers. Contact Johnston at (734) 763-5043.
Wayne County retailers sell cigarettes to minority youth
While tobacco companies and their advertisers are under fire from anti-smoking groups for encouraging teens to light up, most local stores that carry cigarettes do little to deter the habit, according to John Wallace, a U-M assistant professor of social work.
In a recent study, Wallace found that 75 percent of some 300 Wayne County convenience stores, grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies sell cigarettes to minority youths 14-17.
He suggests that clerks should routinely ask for ID (93 percent fail to do so, according to the Wallace study), that stores prominently post the required "no sales to minors" signs (70 percent do not), and that retailers who illegally sell tobacco products to youth be fined.
Wallace can be reached at (734) 763-6288 or (734) 763-5043 or by electronic mail at [email protected]
PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES Hard-core smokers may use nicotine to manage depression, ADHD, anxiety or bulimia
"There is mounting evidence that smoking is becoming increasingly concentrated in people at risk for major depressive disorders, adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorders and bulimia or binge-eating. People with these conditions or co-factors often use nicotine to help manage their symptoms," according to Cynthia S. Pomerleau, a researcher with the U-M Substance Abuse Research Center and the Nicotine Research Laboratory in the U-M Department of Psychiatry.
"Many of those who have given up smoking in the past appear to have been the 'easy quits' or casual adult smokers," she added. Health professionals helping smokers with co-factors to quit smoking may have to treat the depression, anxiety, ADHD or binge-eating behaviors first or simultaneously, Pomerleau said.
Pomerleau suggests that more research be conducted regarding the potential therapeutic use of nicotine products---transdermal patches, nasal sprays or gum---to treat ADHD and conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. "We need more data on the possible toxic effects of nicotine to weigh against its possible therapeutic effects." Contact Cynthia S. Pomerleau at (734) 998-6430 or [email protected].
Researchers seek to understand the effects of nicotine on the brain.
Understanding how nicotine affects the brain could lead to more effective smoking-cessation aids and better treatments for nicotine withdrawal, says Sally Guthrie, a U-M associate professor of pharmacy. A research team that includes pharmacology professor Edward Domino, assistant professor of psychiatry Jon-Kar Zubieta, associate professor of internal medicine Satoshi Minoshima, associate professor of nuclear medicine Robert Koeppe, and Guthrie, is using medical imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) to study nicotine's effects on the brain.
"We know that the drug causes some relatively long lasting change in the brain's pleasure center, but we don't know what that change is," says Guthrie. Trying to figure out what that is and what is causing it might allow us to block that process or to block the rebound effect that happens when people undergo withdrawal.
The team is also studying the relationship between the amount of nicotine in the blood and the "rush" that smokers get when they first light up. Oddly, that pleasurable feeling doesn't last, even if the nicotine level in the blood keeps rising.
Guthrie speculates that a threshold level of nicotine must reach the brain quickly to trigger the feeling, but beyond that initial amount, the continued presence of nicotine causes no further effects in the brain's pleasure center.
In related work, Guthrie and co-workers are investigating whether nicotine's effects on the brain depend on the way it is delivered through smoking or through a nasal spray, for example. Contact Sally Guthrie at [email protected] or Nancy Ross-Flanigan at [email protected] or (734) 647-1853
LEGAL/BUSINESS ISSUES Tobacco settlement relies on ineffective regulation methods
Congress should reject the proposed tobacco resolution created by the state attorneys general and start over from scratch, says Kyle Logue, a U-M assistant professor of law.
The proposed resolution, Logue says, relies heavily on "command-and-control" regulations, such as new warning requirements and new FDA control over the level of nicotine and other ingredients in tobacco products. It lacks, however, "incentive-based" regulations, which simply make the tobacco industry pay its costs and let the market sort things out.
"Command-and-control is the least effective form of regulation in this type of setting, because it requires the regulator to have an enormous amount of information about the product, information that the regulator often must rely on the industry to provide," Logue says. "Insofar as the industry is the source of the regulator's information, it becomes relatively easy for the industry to manipulate the process and avoid really having to bear the costs of its actions."
Logue can be reached at (734) 936-2207 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Tobacco and drug companies compete for consumers
Tobacco companies are likely to find themselves competing with pharmaceutical companies to develop new products that will deliver nicotine to nicotine-dependent consumers on a long-term basis without smoking cigarettes, according to Kenneth E. Warner, professor of health management and policy at the U-M.
"At present, these two industries have diametrically opposed objectives---the tobacco industry striving to sustain nicotine addictions and the pharmaceutical industry striving to end them," Warner said.
But both industries are competing for the same consumer, and as the new market shapes up, it is becoming clear that "current regulatory policy favors the tobacco companies, which encounter little regulation to speak of and can introduce new, nicotine maintenance products quickly and easily." Contact Kenneth E Warner at (734) 936-0934 or [email protected]
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