OTTAWA, Aug 14, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Smoking marijuana, like smoking
tobacco, has toxic effects on cells, researchers in Canada found.
Rebecca Maertens of Health Canada and colleagues said people often view
marijuana as a "natural" product and less harmful than tobacco. Their findings
challenge the conventional wisdom that smoking marijuana is less harmful to
health than inhaling tobacco smoke.
The researchers compared marijuana smoke and tobacco smoke in terms of toxicity
to cells and DNA. Scientists exposed cultured animal cells and bacteria to
condensed smoke samples from both marijuana and tobacco.
There were distinct differences in the degree and type of toxicity elicited by
marijuana and cigarette smoke, the researchers found.
The study, to be published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology
Marijuana, found marijuana smoke caused significantly more damage to cells and
DNA than tobacco smoke. However, tobacco smoke caused chromosome damage while
marijuana did not.
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