This story, relying on the Duke press release, vastly overstates this study's safety findings. This study about smoking while wearing the patch ONLY involved healthy smokers. Nearly all having clinical medical conditions which might possibly be impacted by nicotine overdose (roughly one-third who were screened for this study) were excluded. Also troubling is that the authors have hidden from their abstract and press release the fact that the study's 7-day point prevalence quit smoking findings (the U.S. Guideline's #1 evidence standard) actually show a one percentage point victory for the placebo group.