Do radioactive isotopes in tobacco fertilizer give smokers cancer?

Tobacco smoke contains thousands of chemicals, many of which are believed to be carcinogenic. Most of the suspected carcinogens are produced during combustion, which include polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (tars) and acrolein. Nitrosamines are also carcinogenic, and are produced during the curing of tobacco leaves. However, the fertilizer used for tobacco plants contains lead and polonium which may also be dangerous to consume.

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Experts In Health

Monique Muggli Researcher

Mostly Agree

The major tobacco manufacturers discovered that polonium was part of tobacco and tobacco smoke more than 40 years ago and attempted, but failed, to remove this radioactive substance from their products. Internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the companies suppressed publication of their own internal research to avoid heightening the public’s awareness of radioactivity in cigarettes. ... Cigarette packs should carry a radiation-exposure warning label.

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16 Jul 2008 Source

Disagree

Experts In Health

Naomi Harley Professor of Medicine

Disagree

Levels of polonium-210 in tobacco smoke are insufficient to have a significant impact on lung cancer initiation in smokers. [note: this quote comes from a 2002 article paraphrasing/summarizing a 1980 article]

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01 Jan 1980 Source

Neutral

Experts In Health

J. Marmorstein Researcher

Neutral

[increasing incidents of lung cancer] may be due to changes in modern cigarettes, with or without filters, which allow inhalation of increased amounts of radioactive lead and polonium and decreased amounts of benzopyrene. This hypothesis is based upon measurements of increased concentrations of radioactive polonium in the lungs of cigarette smokers, in modern tobaccos grown since 1950, and in high-phosphate fertilizers used for tobacco farming in industrialized countries.

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01 Feb 1986 Source

Experts In Science

Robert Proctor Professor in the History of Science

Neutral

Pack-and-a-half smokers are dosed to the tune of about 300 chest X-rays. Is it therefore really correct to say, as Britain’s Health Protection Agency did this week, that the risk of having been exposed to this substance remains low?

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01 Dec 2006 Source

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Do radioactive isotopes in tobacco fertilizer give smokers cancer?

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