African Americans may be more predisposed to developing nicotine addiction than their paler-skinned peers, a new scientific study has determined. The paper also reveals the fact that obtained darker skin, as in that obtained from prolonged sun exposure, and not through genetics, from mother to infants, is especially linked with tobacco addiction. A statistical correlation between the frequency of smoking and skin color has also been identified, researchers from the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) also said, Wired reports.

“African Americans are known to have a more difficult time quitting and suffer from more tobacco-related diseases. By addressing the connection between biological aspects of skin color and tobacco use, this has global implications for all groups, especially to populations with high levels of UV radiation,” explained Penn State medical sociologist Gary King. The expert was the lead author of the new scientific paper, which was published in a recent issue of the scientific journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.

 

The main reason behind this predisposition, the investigation reveals, is the pigment melanin, which determines the overall color of the skin. It would appear, King said, that the chemical has a special affinity towards nicotine, with which it binds solidly. The connections are not easily broken, and so the nicotine, together with other harmful substances in tobacco, accumulate in organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and brain, where they can cause severe diseases, including cancer. The expert also added that this was the first study ever to analyze the correlations between skin color and smoking habits.

 

In humans, experts explained, the pigment melanin can appear in two ways: either by genetic causes, where genes encoding the production of the stuff are passed on from mother to child, or naturally, after prolonged exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, coming from the Sun, or even cosmetic tanning beds. Either way, King argued, there is no distinguishable difference between the two type of melanin, and their chemical affinity towards nicotine is exactly the same.

 

The Penn State team also learned that various regions of the body are related to the chances that a darker-skinned person has of smoking more frequently and becoming more addicted to nicotine. Darkness on the forehead exhibited the tightest link, whereas darker skin on the forearm showed no statistical correlation to nicotine addiction. King is still unsure of how this mechanism works, but hypothesizes that dependency might be given by the fact that dark-skinned people constantly carry a small amount of nicotine in their bloodstream, even some time after they quit smoking.