Cigaret smoking produces abnormal amounts of orthoaminophenols in the urine, a team of University of Toronto investigators has reported.
Describing the orthoaminophenols as carcinogenic, the group termed its findings the first evidence of a chemical link between smoking and cancer.
A report of the work was read to the Toronto Academy of Medicine by William K. Kerr, MD, of the university's Department of Surgery and the Banting Institute. Co-investigators are Martin Barkin, MD, Peter E. Levers, MD, and Stanley K.C. Woo, MD.
Kerr said the team made 30 metabolic studies of six subjects, some smokers and some nonsmokers.
"The smokers were tested while still smoking and also later, when they had stopped smoking for three weeks to three months," he said. "Finally, in some instances, they were tested again upon resumption of smoking.
"Nonsmokers were tested while still not smoking and then after smoking for three weeks. Later, they were