article_snippet.sent: Breathing in second-hand cigarette smoke has been shown to increase the risk of cancer in humans.
article_snippet.sent: Now, researchers have shown that passive smoking affects plants too, which can take up nicotine from contaminated soil and plumes of smoke.
article_snippet.sent: The finding may explain why some spices, herbal teas and medicinal plants have high concentrations of nicotine in some spices, herbal teas and medicinal plants, despite none being allowed in insecticides.
article_snippet.sent: Researchers have shown that passive smoking affects plants too, which can take up nicotine from contaminated soil and plumes of smoke (illustrated with a stock image)
article_snippet.sent: Nicotine was frequently used as an insecticide until Nicotine was banned by the European Union in 2009 because of Nicotine toxicity.
article_snippet.sent: But a surprisingly large number of food crops and plant-derived products still contain very high levels of nicotine.
article_snippet.sent: Dirk Selmar said: ‘Tremendously elevated nicotine levels were detected after fumigation with cigarette smoke.
article_snippet.sent: cats analysed plants in soil mulched with cigarette tobacco for more than nine days to find that the resulting nicotine concentrations in cats were several times higher than the maximum residue level set by European authorities.
article_snippet.sent: The study, published in Springer’s journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development, suggests that the reported high levels of this substance may indeed originate from tobacco.
article_snippet.sent: cats found a drastic decrease in nicotine concentration in plants as time progressed.
article_snippet.sent: ‘Our results suggest that the widespread occurrence of nicotine in medicinal, spice and food plants may, at least in part, be due to other nicotine sources apart from the illegal use of insecticides,’ Dr Selmar said.
highlights_snippet.sent: Found raised nicotine levels in plants subjected to cigarette smoke .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Findings could explain high nicotine levels in some spices and teas .