Mycotoxin Associated Risks of Cigarette Tobacco Sold in Nigeria

This research has not sought to discover new adverse effects of cigarettes that smokers may be exposed to, but to elucidate the underlying cause of some of the health hazard that smokers have always been exposed to and fallen victim of. There is a strong correlation between lung cancer death rates and smoking. Constituents of tar and the gas phase of cigarette smoke have always been implicated in cigarette induced carcinogenesis. The scientific thought has been along this line for too long and other predisposing factors to cancer in the tobacco has been ignored. This research has established the presence of aflatoxin contamination in cigarette tobacco. It has also established the presence of fungal spore contaminant in cigarette tobacco, and that some of the fungi are toxigenic, elaborating mycotoxins, which smokers could be exposed to. Mycotoxins may have been ignored and classified within the tar constituents, being particulate itself. Since some of the mycotoxins, and especially aflatoxins, are known carcinogens, chronic exposure to them by smokers could be another predisposing factor to cancer in smokers.