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Early-Morning Smokers Are More Likely to Get Cancer

Lighting up a cigarette shortly after waking up ups cancer risk, study says

Mar 30, 2013 22:01 GMT  ·  By
Early-morning smokers are more likely to get oral or lung cancer, study finds
   Early-morning smokers are more likely to get oral or lung cancer, study finds

According to a new study published in the scientific journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention this past March 29, early-morning smokers have higher risks of being affected by either oral or lung cancer.

This is because, unlike people who refrain from lighting up a cigarette immediately after waking up, those who smoke shortly after getting out of bed have higher levels of a tobacco-related carcinogen in their blood stream.

The Pennsylvania State University scientists who pieced together this study maintain that the levels of NNAL (i.e. a metabolite of NNK, a tobacco specific carcinogen) in the bodies of early-morning smokers remain elevated regardless of how much they smoke during the day.

“The cigarette-per-day adjusted levels of NNAL were twice as high in participants who smoked within 5 minutes after waking than in participants who refrained from smoking for at least 1 hour,” the researchers write in their paper.

Thus, the researchers maintain that, all things considered, puffing on one cigarette upon waking is more detrimental to one's health than indulging in several others at night, Counsel & Heal reports.

The study speculates that early-morning smokers have higher levels of NNAL in their blood as a result of their being able to inhale more deeply during the first few minutes of the day.

4 As researcher Steven Branstetter puts it, “We believe these people who smoke sooner after waking inhale more deeply and more thoroughly, which could explain the higher levels of NNAL in their blood, as well as their higher risk of developing oral or lung cancer.”

These conclusions concerning the health risks associated with smoking shortly after waking up were reached after collecting and analyzing urine samples from 1,945 smoking adults.

Of these, 32% smoked within the first five minutes of the day, 31% waited for a half an hour tops, and 80% refrained from lighting up for at least one hour following their getting out of bed.

Just 19% of the smokers taken into consideration for this research waited for more than an hour before puffing on their first cigarette.