Fantastic Four

It’s hard to believe that when Dorothy Hatsukami started researching nicotine addiction more than 25 years ago, there wasn’t even full consensus that nicotine was addictive.

“People who are addicted to nicotine don’t have the kind of social or job consequences you might see among those who have other types of addictions,” she points out. “On top of that, you don’t see intoxication as [in] drug use.”

Hatsukami’s U of M research team in the 1980s was one of the first to scientifically characterize the withdrawal symptoms that smokers experience when they quit, proving that smokers develop a physical dependence on nicotine. Now, Hatsukami’s group works on helping smokers quit. Their research also extends to nonsmokers and reducing their toxin exposure from secondhand tobacco smoke.

They made headlines in March 2008 with a study showing that hospitality workers had significantly fewer tobacco-specific cancer-causing chemicals in their bodies since Minnesota’s Freedom to Breathe Act—which prohibited smoking in virtually all public places—went into effect on October 1, 2007. The study included nonsmoking employees of bars, restaurants, and bowling alleys throughout the state. Urine samples taken before and after the smoking ban took effect showed that participants experienced as much as an 85 percent decrease in some tobacco-specific toxins.

“That shows that the Minnesota comprehensive smoking ban does make a significant difference in protecting our workers from harm,” Hatsukami says. “I’m really proud of the fact that our state was able to pass that ban.”

Hatsukami was also on a team led by the U’s Stephen Hecht that proved that infants inhale cancer-causing chemicals in secondhand smoke. Some infants had toxin levels similar to those found in adult smokers.

Findings like those are useful only if they become widely known, Hatsukami believes. So some of the grant money garnered by her university research center goes toward influencing public health policies and programs at every level.

“Dissemination is vitally important,” she says. “For example, we would like to have information about the infant study conveyed to parents who smoke to let them know that they may be doing harm to their children.”