Nicotine

For years, scientists studying the brain have quarreled over whether smoking protects people from such diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. After all, the theory went, nicotine stimulates the brain, so it should help fight off brain diseases. A study from the Netherlands yesterday cast doubt on that theory, finding that smokers in fact suffered higher rates of Alzheimer's disease than nonsmokers. The results will cheer antismoking activists who have feared that research into the "benefits" of smoking would reduce smokers' efforts to quit.

Frustrated smokers ate mints and licked lollipops yesterday on the first day of a smoking ban on U.S. airline flights of two hours or less, and many lighted cigarettes the minute they left their planes. A dozen puffers protested at Washington's National Airport, but airline employees at Philadelphia International Airport and Newark International Airport said the new policy seemed to be accepted by most passengers. Agnes Dean of Philadelphia, a smoker arriving home after a trip to Florida, said the change "didn't bother me. It's just as well for safety's sake.

This is it. Throw away the cigarettes. Bury the ashtrays. Take a long, deep breath. With the declaration by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Monday that nicotine in tobacco products is an addictive drug comparable to heroin, there may be no better time for smokers to quit. Koop's 618-page report cited 171 separate studies as proof that nicotine hooks smokers, and says the drug has psychoactive and mood-altering effects on the brain. That means there are close to 50 million tobacco addicts in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control's Office on Smoking and Health.

The federal government has issued a ban on smoking except in designated areas in all 7,500 federal buildings. The nearly total prohibition on smoking in the federal workplace, effective Feb. 8, has been a long time coming, and ought to be extended by Congress to every enclosed public area. Non-smokers should be freed from inhaling the acrid smoke of nicotine addicts, who may have the right to kill themselves and smell bad, but who have no right to do it unto others. Other than a dead skunk, there is nothing that smells worse or offends more than a cigarette smoker puffing (and usually coughing)

The Clinton administration is soon expected to declare nicotine an addictive drug and announce restrictions intended to keep teenagers from smoking. The attempt to restrict tobacco companies' appeals to teenagers and cut youngsters' access to cigarettes may come as early as tomorrow. That would cap a flurry of presidential activity signing popular legislation just days before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The long-expected move would give explicit authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco sales and advertising to minors.

A major U.S. tobacco company secretly used a genetically engineered plant with double the amount of nicotine found in nature to make cigarettes, the head of the Food and Drug Administration charged yesterday. The souped-up cigarettes - Viceroy King Size, Viceroy Lights King Size, Richland King Size, Richland Lights King Size and Raleigh Lights King Size - were distributed nationally by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. in 1993 and early 1994, FDA Commissioner David Kessler told a congressional panel.

A panel of scientists agreed yesterday that nicotine in cigarettes is an addictive drug, much like heroin and cocaine, an important first step toward the possible regulation of cigarettes by the federal government. The Food and Cosmetic Act gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate drugs that are intended to affect the structure and function of the body. The nine-member Drug Abuse Advisory Committee to the FDA voted overwhelmingly yesterday that nicotine is the active agent in tobacco that causes people to become hooked.

Philip Morris, the tobacco giant that says it does not manipulate nicotine in its cigarettes, once tried to find a substitute chemical that could mimic nicotine's druglike effects and keep smokers coming back for more. Victor DeNoble, who worked on the research project for the company, told a House subcommittee yesterday that the project's ultimate goal was to take the nicotine out of the tobacco and replace it with a substitute that would not have harmful side-effects. Yesterday's hearing before the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment also focused on Philip Morris' cloak-and-dagger efforts to keep the details of the research secret - from bringing research animals into the lab at night to threatening lawsuits if research findings were published.

Some time in the course of evolution, a combination of 26 atoms was given the power to unlock a few of life's deepest chemical secrets. Secrets of pleasure. Secrets of death. Ten of the atoms were carbons, 14 were hydrogens, two nitrogens. Arranged in a particular pattern, they triggered powerful physical and psychological reactions in species as diverse as cockroaches and humans. The combination of atoms is called nicotine. It is one of the most unusual psychoactive drugs known.

Will tougher cigarette warnings work? The Liggett Group's agreement to mark its packages with a warning that cigarettes are addictive comes after 30 years of increasingly somber cautions about the danger of tobacco. During that time, cigarette smoking has dropped by half among adult males and by one-third among adult women. But it is increasing sharply among teenagers, when the habit is usually picked up. In fact, teenage smoking increased by 30 percent from 1991 to 1995, according to a study published yesterday by the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Chronic constipation, heart disease and death Q: I had always believed that Elvis Presley died at 42 from a heart attack. However, I've recently read that his longtime physician George Nichopoulos believes Elvis died from chronic constipation. How does someone die from that? A: According to the autopsy report, hypertensive cardiovascular disease and a "colon problem" were the likely contributing factors to his premature death from a heart attack. It has been reported by his now-retired personal physician that Elvis suffered for years from chronic constipation and that his colon was markedly distended at autopsy.

Maybe it was just a bad nicotine fit * Bustleton Avenue near Hellerman Street An armed robber made off with cash and cigarettes after holding up a Wawa in Oxford Circle yesterday, police said. The suspect, described as a Hispanic male in his early 30s, was wearing a tan jacket and tan pants when he entered the Wawa about 6:30 a.m. yesterday and pulled out a gun. He fled on foot along Bustleton Avenue with an undetermined amount of cash and about 30 packs of cigarettes, police said.

Soon after the quit-smoking pill Chantix debuted in 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began receiving reports of severe psychiatric disturbances in people taking it. Experts who analyzed the FDA's database of "serious adverse events" found Chantix was suspected in more cases of violence than any other prescription drug. It also generated more reports of suicide, self-injury, and depression than any other smoking-cessation therapy. Despite this troubling link - which has led the FDA to require prominent warnings on the Chantix package insert - researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and other medical centers are now testing it in people who may be especially vulnerable to such problems.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health hasn't quite developed a reputation for merrymaking, but for the second year in a row it has come up with presents - a one-month supply of nicotine patches plus telephone counseling - for 5,000 people. The free smoking- cessation packages are worth about $400 each (paid for with a federal grant). Health Commissioner Donald F. Schwarz said a survey after last year's giveaway found that it had helped 1,700 residents quit. Philadelphia has the highest adult smoking rate of the 10 biggest cities in the country.

Gregory Conley can't go inside his favorite Starbucks in Mount Laurel to take a few puffs, so he enjoys his habit outside. To passersby, it may look like he is drawing deeply from any old cigarette, but a closer whiff proves otherwise. That's because the newest smoking rage, boosted by "vapers" (that's with an e , not an o ), is not to smoke - sort of. Battery-powered "e-cigarettes" - no matches needed - give consumers a nicotine fix without the burning tobacco haze, hazards, and stench of their old-fashioned counterparts.

A: The simplest way to save leftover herbs is to dry them. Spread the sprigs on a dish towel, and leave them out of direct sunlight for two to four days. Use them on their own, or mix the herbs, finely chopped, with an equal amount of coarse salt. Add the blend to dishes as you cook or at the table - try marjoram with vegetables, and tarragon with fish and poultry. Fragrant herbs such as lavender can scent sugar: Place a few dried flowers in a jar of sugar for one week, shaking it occasionally.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 20-year-old female who has recently come to terms with the fact that I am bisexual. My problem lies in the fact that I am strongly attracted to one of my best friends. I have liked her for several years, and she is a large part of the reason I discovered I was bisexual. I know she is straight and won't ever feel the same about me, but every time I'm around her, my romantic feelings for her start up again. It has reached the point where I'm considering avoiding her to stop these feelings.

DESPITE HAVING just won a pretty big contest himself, Vice President-elect Joe Biden seemed awestruck by Phillies Cole Hamels and Pat Burrell Sunday. The three were guests in Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie 's suite at Lincoln Financial Field. We're told Biden introduced his wife, Jill , to Burrell, saying she thinks "Pat the Bat" is a stud. Burrell was there with wife, Michelle ; Hamels, who wore an A.J. Feeley jersey, was accompanied by "Survivor" bride Heidi Strobel . Biden, we hear, was genuinely psyched to meet the players, asked them questions about how it felt to win the World Series and said the parade must have been excellent.

Anthony Tarducci has tried to quit smoking many times over the last 25 years. He's gone cold turkey, slapped on the patch, even taken antidepressants. Nothing worked. On June 23 he tried again, this time with a powerful new aid: Chantix - the antismoking medicine that was approved for sale in the United States 18 months ago. Today, the 45-year-old South Philadelphian considers himself an ex-smoker, and he credits the drug with enabling him to kick his more-than-a-pack-a-day habit.

Gov. Rendell's bold initiative to expand health insurance seeks to tax what is benignly known as "smokeless" tobacco. But behind this laudatory move is a story that involves health risks and powerful Harrisburg lobbyists. Tobacco, when mixed with saliva in the mouth, creates a dangerous cocktail that includes 28 carcinogens, including formaldehyde, cadmium (used in car batteries), arsenic, cyanide, benzene, lead, a substance known as polonium-210, and, of course, nicotine. (Polonium-210 made news last fall when a microscopic quantity of industrial polonium-210 somehow made its way into the body of a former Soviet spy living in London.