TEST FINDS NICOTINE IN NONSMOKERS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993                   TAG: 9301220161
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Short
TEST FINDS NICOTINE IN NONSMOKERS
The first 800 people in a massive federal study of exposure to tobacco smoke had signs of nicotine in their bodies whether they smoked or not, researchers said Thursday.
"We really weren't expecting that," said Dr. James Pirkle of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC is testing 23,000 Americans over age 4 for cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine that is found in blood serum. The researchers found cotinine in all of the first 800 people tested.
The preliminary results came two weeks after an Environmental Protection Agency report that labeled secondhand smoke a carcinogen and said it kills about 3,000 nonsmokers a year from lung cancer alone. Critics have said the EPA failed to document how many people are exposed to secondhand smoke and at what levels.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB