According to the study, toxins from marijuana smoke can be harmful to health

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According to the study published Monday in the journal EClinicalMedicine, people who only smoked marijuana had higher levels of blood and urine in various smoke-related toxins, such as naphthalene, acrylamide and acrylonitrile.

“Marijuana use is on the rise in the United States, with a growing number of states legalizing it for medical and non-medical purposes, including five additional states in the 2020 election,” said Dr. Dana Gabuzda, senior researcher in immunology at the United States. cancer and virology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, in a statement.

“The increase has renewed concern about the potential health effects of marijuana smoke, which is known to contain some of the same toxic combustion products found in tobacco smoke,” Gabuzda said.

Tobacco smokers

The new research presented data from three studies of 245 HIV-positive and HIV-negative participants. The researchers said they chose to study people with HIV infection because of the high prevalence of smoking tobacco and marijuana that is typically found in this population.

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Medical records were compared with blood and urine samples of various chemicals produced by the degradation of nicotine or the burning of tobacco or marijuana.

Tobacco and marijuana smokers had higher levels of naphthalene, acrylamide, and acrylonitrile than marijuana-only smokers. Tobacco smokers also had higher levels of a chemical called acrolein in their blood and urine. Acrolein is a well-known contributor to cardiovascular disease in tobacco smokers.

Marijuana smokers, however, did not have higher levels of acrolein in the body.

“This is the first study to compare exposure to acrolein and other harmful smoke-related chemicals over time in exclusive marijuana smokers and tobacco smokers, and to see if those exposures are related to cardiovascular disease.” , said Gabuzda.

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Acrolein is a chemical with a spicy, sweet, burnt odor created by the combustion of fuels such as gasoline or oil and organic materials such as tobacco. The chemical is not added to cigarettes; acrolein is produced by burning sugars present in tobacco when smoked.

Short-term exposure to acrolein can cause irritation and congestion of the upper respiratory tract. At extreme levels, it can be toxic to humans after inhalation, oral or dermal exposures, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Weed smokers

Although weed smokers had higher amounts of naphthalene, acrylamide, and acrylonitrile in their blood and urine than non-smokers, even higher levels were found in people who smoked tobacco or a combination of marijuana and tobacco.

Acrylamide is a chemical used to make paper, plastics and dyes, but it is also produced when vegetables such as potatoes are heated to high temperatures. It is also a component of tobacco smoke.

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“People are exposed to substantially more acrylamide from tobacco smoke than from food. People who smoke have three to five times higher levels of acrylamide exposure markers in their blood than non-smokers,” he said. ‘National Cancer Institute.
According to the American Cancer Society, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies acrylamide as a “probable human carcinogen,” while the U.S. National Toxicology Program says it is reasonably expected to be a carcinogen for to humans “, based on animal studies.
Acrylonitrile is commonly used in the manufacturer of plastics and fibers. “Cigarette smoking can be a major source of indoor air pollution with acrylonitrile,” according to the World Health Organization.
Symptoms of acrylonitrile poisoning include “weakness of the limbs, laborious and irregular breathing, dizziness and judgment problems, cyanosis, nausea, collapse, and seizures.” The agency said. And a “statistically significant increase in the incidence of lung cancer in several studies of chronically exposed workers” has been reported.

The EPA classifies acrylonitrile as a “probable human carcinogen.”

Naphthalene, which is used in mothballs, can cause “headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, malaise, confusion, anemia, jaundice, seizures, and coma,” according to the EPA.
The highest concentrations of naphthalene in the indoor air occur in the homes of cigarette smokers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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