Once again there was a marvelous description in the Styles section of the Sunday N.Y. Times using ferrets! Someone obviously has taste. We know who but you have to go to their website and read to learn more. ;-)! There is a several paragraph short piece in the Feb 20th issue of Science News (Vol. 155) which is interesting. It refers to a full article in the January 6th HOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE. This is a follow-up on the study which noticed that too much beta-carotene appeared to increase lung cancer in smokers. The 6 month study in ferrets found that beta-carotene oxidizes with dangerous metabolites that pack a "toxic double whammy". The amounts used were similar when adjusted to the amounts used in the human studies. Some ferrets were exposed to cigarette smoke, and others were not, some had neither beta-carotene nor smoke. The metabolites destroyed retinoic acid in the lungs; retinoic acid is a known cancer suppressing vitamin-derived compound. They also activated a protein which spurs cellular division. The ferrets which did NOT take betacarotene had healthy lungs, the ones which took beta-carotene had precancerous changes in their lungs, the ones which were exposed to cigarette smoke and beta-carotene had the worst lung damage. You can track down related websites. Be careful with those supplements!!!!!!!!!! [Posted in FML issue 2596]