No Wonder Obama Can't Quit Smoking
by Sarah VarneyMay 25, 2009
No wonder President Obama is having trouble quitting his tobacco habit. It may be related to the color of his skin. No, really. A study by King et al, published in Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, shows a connection between melanin and a metabolite of nicotine called cotinine. The authors sought to determine whether melanin, which is known to bind with nicotine, might be related to tobacco use and dependence among African Americans.
The authors measured the color of study participants' skin using a technique called skin reflectance, and then looked at how many cigarettes per day they smoked, how much cotinine was in their saliva, and how dependent they were on nicotine as measured by the so-called Fagerström Test of Nicotine Dependence. It turns out that those study participants with darker skin (containing more melanin) smoked the most and had the most cotinine in their systems; these people also appeared to be the most strongly addicted. Bad news for Obama.
In the most recent demographic study from the US Census in 2006, the smoking rate for non-Hispanic whites was 21.5% compared to 21.9% for non-Hispanic blacks. Sounds reasonable until you consider that African Americans are far less likely to quit smoking then Caucasians, according to Fu et al, and that African Americans who smoke more than a pack a day are far more likely to develop lung cancer than whites who smoke just as much, according to Stellman et al.
It can’t be much fun to be the first smoking president in decades. The last two butt fiends were FDR and Eisenhower. Chicago Time Out has been tracking Obama’s attempts to quit since December of 2005. Each December they check in to see how he’s been doing. According to some press reports, he uses his nightly dog walks to sneak a cigarette on the White House grounds. I’m sure his wife is completely in the dark about these nocturnal missions.
Quitting smoking ain't easy. No doubt about it. Recently published research on the many facets of “social nicotine dependence” shows why. Caggiula et al posit that nicotine acts in three ways to reinforce smoking (or nicotine gum-chewing): It acts as a primary reinforcer, through chemical addiction, to sustain the behavior that leads to its delivery; its use becomes associated with environmental triggers that are conditioned through “Pavlovian associations”—think alcohol and cigarettes; and it serves as a reinforcement enhancer— making all the great stuff that goes on around in the environment — alcohol, loud music, sex, power, seem even greater than they really are.
Another study by Cummings et al underlines the complex dance between environment and biology that makes the nicotine addiction so hard to break. Only smoking cessation efforts that target agent, host, and environment are likely to be successful. And even then, old Devil Tobacco may still have the upper hand. Just ask the Commander in Chief.
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