Cancer-free tobacco?

North Carolina State University scientists say they've shut down a gene in burley tobacco plants that produces carcinogens in cured tobacco leaves.

The research, funded naturally enough by Philip Morris USA, deals with a gene that turns nicotine into nornicotine, which is a precursor to the carcinogen N-nitrosonornicotine, or NNN. Varying percentages of nicotine are turned into nornicotine while the plant ages, and nornicotine converts to NNN, as the tobacco is cured, processed and stored.

Compared to "control" plant lines, researchers found that the genetically-modified plants had a six-fold decrease in carcinogenic NNN, as well as a 50 percent overall reduction in the class of harmful compounds called TSNAs, or tobacco-specific nitrosamines. TSNAs are reported to be among the most important tobacco-related compounds implicated in various cancers in laboratory experiments.

It's quite a step for an industry that not that long ago denied tobacco caused cancer. Imagine the impact if scientists are successful in removing all carcinogens from tobacco, (although it seems impossible to make smoking, with its production of smoke, carbon monoxide and other substances, completely harmless). Would anti-smoking laws all have to be repealed if smoking proved to be benign?

Better yet, what if tobacco were genetically modified to remove all addictive qualities?

The possibilities are endless ...