The Tobacco Reference Guide
by David Moyer, MD.

Chapter 11 Other health problems

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Other health problems: Miscellaneous Health Problems

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Green tobacco sickness, a type of nicotine poisoning, can occur in tobacco

harvesters when nicotine contained in the sap of tobacco leaves is absorbed through

the skin. Symptoms are weakness, nausea, vomiting, headache, and difficulty

breathing. In Kentucky, about 600 workers during the late summer harvest each

season seek emergency care for this condition.

Southern Medical Journal, September 1993, p. 989 and Morbidity and Mortality

Weekly Report, April 9, 1993, p. 237

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In a study from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine published in the March

2000 issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 41% of tobacco farm

workers contracted "green tobacco sickness," a form of acute nicotine poisoning from

nicotine absorption from tobacco leaves through the skin, at least once during a

summer harvest season.

American Medical News, March 6, 2000, p. 4

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Cigarette smoking decreases exhaled nitrogen dioxide. Since nitric oxide is

important in defending the respiratory tract against infection, in counteracting

bronchoconstriction and vasoconstriction, and in inhibiting platelet aggregation, this

effect may contribute to increased risks of chronic respiratory and cardiovascular

diseases in cigarette smokers.

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, August 1995, p. 609

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