17 Sep 2005
Tobacco industry weakened pesticide regulations, UCSF study shows

I wonder if anyone's thought about this: the tobacco industry was seemingly bent on massive pesticide use. Yet, nicotine is a natural insecticide, and about the only major infection I've heard of in tobacco is viral (mosaic virus), which cannot be treated with pesticides. So the obvious question is: why? What eats tobacco (besides humans)? Assuming this article is correct, there has to be a rational reason they'd want to spend the money to spray the fields with expensive pesticides.

The second question is more subtle, but also more pertinent: assuming smoking cigarettes indeed causes cancer, and assuming that the anti-tobacco sites are correct in their identification of all manner of known carcinogens in cigarettes, where exactly did those chemicals come from? Are they naturally occurring in the plant, or are they breakdown or combustion products of petrochemical pesticides? Some of both? Which is which?

Inquiring minds want to know.

The tobacco industry coordinated cross-industry campaigns to delay and weaken federal and international regulations on pesticide use, according to new findings by UCSF researchers.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

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