Former FDA chief ‘skeptical’ on nicotine causing cancer

A new study claiming that vaping nicotine causes cancer in mice has former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb crying foul. Gottlieb told CNBC that he isn’t convinced that vaping nicotine is carcinogenic. He then cited a study that pointed toward the opposite conclusion.

“I’m skeptical that nicotine causes cancer,” Gottlieb, a trained physician, said Monday on “Squawk Box.” “It might be a tumor promoter, [researchers] have said that there’s a potential that nicotine is a tumor promoter, but it doesn’t cause cancer.”

Gottlieb was responding to a New York University study released last week that said e-cigarette vapor with nicotine causes lung cancer and possibly bladder cancer in mice, damaging their DNA, according to the CNBC story.

Gottlieb expressed doubt, saying the study was conducted on a small scale and isolated the effects of nicotine, according to the CNBC story. A spokesman for NYU said he didn’t want to comment on Gottlieb’s remarks, and pointed CNBC to the study’s findings.

However, Gottlieb still said he would expect inhaling vapor to cause damage to the lungs.