US made ciggies '3 times more cancerous than foreign counterparts'

Washington, June 3 (ANI): A new research says that cigarettes made in America may have higher amounts carcinogen - a cancer-causing substance.

According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), popular U.S. brands have more carcinogens than foreign smokes. American-made products may have up to three times the level of carcinogenic nitrosamines found in foreign brands.

Levels of nitrosamines, a major cancer-causing agent in cigarettes were compared for 126 smokers in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia. Only the most popular brands were included in the study - which in the United States included Marlboro, Newport, and Camel varieties, according to the study.

"People smoking the U.S. brand cigarettes [we tested] received a level of this carcinogen in their mouth and lungs that was three times higher compared to smokers in Canada and Australia," ABC News quoted Dr. James Pirkle, deputy director for science at the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, as saying.

"This study should not be taken lightly," says Dr. John Spangler, director of tobacco intervention programs at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, but it only looks at nitrosamines -- "not the two dozen other cancer causing toxins" in cigarettes.

"People might think that by switching brands, they will improve their health outcomes," he says, but it's too early in the research to know whether this might the case. (ANI)