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Cigarettes,
including low-tar cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars
and cheroots all fall into this category.
Tobacco smoke contains between 4000-5000 chemicals.
Around half of these substances are found in the
tobacco leaves, the remainder are produced as it
burns. The smoke that is inhaled is called ‘mainstream
smoke’; the smoke from the burning end of
the cigarettes is called ‘side stream smoke’.
Each of these has a different chemical composition.
Many of the chemicals these contain are known to
cause cancer or be toxic in other ways. Some of
them are listed below.
Carbon Monoxide
This
is probably the most well known of all of them.
It is an odourless, colourless gas that is highly
poisonous. It is the gas that causes death when
people inhale car exhaust fumes, or fumes from faulty
heaters.
It is particularly dangerous as it combines with
haemoglobin in the blood much more readily than
oxygen. Up to 15% of a smoker’s blood will
be carrying carbon monoxide instead of oxygen, making
breathing less effective and putting extra strain
on the heart.
Arsenic
This is a deadly poison, used in insecticides.
Ammonia
This is the main ingredient of strong cleaning fluids.
Acetone
This is a widely used solvent. One of its uses is
in nail polish remover.
Benzene
This is a solvent used in fuel manufacturing.
Cadmium
This is a highly poisonous metal, used in batteries.
Formaldehyde
This chemical is used to preserve dead bodies.
Hydrogen Cyanide
This is a lethal gas.
Butane
This gas is used in camping gas and lighter fuel.
Tar
Used to surface roads! It is brown and treacly in
appearance. It is deposited in the lungs and gradually
absorbed.
Nicotine
This is used in insecticide. It stimulates the central
nervous system. This increases the heartbeat rate
and blood pressure, and causes the heart to need
more oxygen. In large quantities nicotine is extremely
poisonous – 60mg of pure nicotine placed on
a person’s tongue would kill them within minutes!
Nicotine is a very powerful drug that causes addiction
in a similar way to drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
It is present in the moisture of the tobacco leaf;
when the cigarette is lit, it evaporates, attaching
itself to minute droplets in the tobacco smoke inhaled
by the smoker. The body absorbs it very quickly,
reaching the brain within 10-19 seconds!
DDT
This is used in insecticide.
Lead
Used in batteries.
Methanol
Used in rocket fuel.
Ethanol
Used in anti-freeze.
All of these, and thousands more, combine to form
the tar that forms when tobacco burns in a cigarette.
When a smoker inhales, about 70% of the tar settles
in the lungs, damaging the surfaces and clogging
the cilia – tiny hairs that protect the lungs
from dirt and infection.
