What's in cigarette smoke?

FreeIndiatips lets you to the very important awareness termed as cigarette.

Q. What's in cigarette smoke?

 

Hope you’ve got a strong stomach because the answer is really gross. Ready for it?

Ok, so imagine breathing in flea powder, nail polish remover and floor cleaner all at the same time. But there’s far more: cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemicals and 69 of these are known to cause cancer. Even if you don't smoke you can still get sick from these poisonous chemicals just by breathing in other people's smoke.
When you smoke a cigarette, you breathe in some of the following:

• tar, a black, sticky substance that contains many poisonous chemical such as: ammonia (found in floor and window cleaner), toluene (found in industrial solvents) and acetone (found in paint stripper and nail polish remover)
• nicotine, the addictive drug in tobacco
• carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas that reduces the amount of oxygen taken up by a person's red blood cells
• hydrogen cyanide, the poison used in gas chambers during World War ll
• metals, including lead, nickel, arsenic (white ant poison) and cadmium (used in car batteries)
• pesticides such as methoprene (found in flea powder). Other chemicals such as benzene (found in petrol) and naphthalene (found in mothballs) are also in tobacco smoke.

 

What's in cigarettes vs. What's in cigarette smoke

Feeling confused? There is a difference between 'what's in cigarettes' and 'what's in cigarette smoke'. The bulk of chemicals and poisons found in cigarette smoke is a direct result from burning the tobacco in its natural form. However the tobacco industry also adds chemicals and poisons to the tobacco during its manufacture for a range of purposes. 
The purposes of additives are to: 

• improve the manufacturing of tobacco products eg. chemicals are added to make tobacco less brittle
• increase the shelf life
• control the rate the tobacco burns
• speed up the delivery of nicotine to the brain
• improve the flavour and reduce the harsh taste

In Australia, since 2000 there has been a voluntary agreement between the Federal Government and the tobacco industry on the disclosure of the ingredients of Australian cigarettes. This means the tobacco industry don't have to disclose all of the ingredients in their products. Therefore it is impossible to know all of the ingredients that are used in each brand or the levels at which they are added.