DO SMOKERS KNOW WHAT A CIGARETTE REALLY IS?
First let’s read what people think about cigarettes, although they are not this simple,
Cigarettes are a small roll of permeable paper containing a bar of chopped up tobacco leaves. These little poison rolls are designed so that the tobacco can be smoked, just by lighting the cigarette and breathing in the smoke.
At the mouth end of the cigarette, there is another layer of porous paper usually known as the tipping paper and a filter. The tipping paper is designed to allow fresh air to penetrate when the smoker inhales. The filter cools the smoke down and reduces the flow of smoke out of the cigarette.
The strength, taste and intensity depend upon:
- The type of tobacco leaf that is used.
- Where on the tobacco plant it is taken from?
- The way the leaf is cured.
- How the leaf is processed.
Not that these factors make it any safer. Cigarettes are much big of a deal actually. Read on!
LET’S FACE THE CIGARETTE REALITY, SHALL WE?
Cigarette or tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 different harmful chemical compounds which are present in all forms, solid, liquid and gas.
Tar, carbon monoxide and nicotine are not the only ones responsible for the toxic effects associated with smoking and passive smoking. There are at least 60 other chemicals in smoke which have been identified as carcinogens and 30 identified metals, some of which are even radioactive.
Here are a few names of the silent killers (chemical compounds in a cigarette)
- Cigarettes Benzene
- Benzo(a)pyrene
- Ammonia
- Formaldehyde
- Hydrogen cyanide
- Acrolein
- Dimethyl nitrosamine
- Non-nicotine alkaloids
- Aromatic amines
- Aromatic metals
- Tobacco specific nitrosamines
- Hydrogen cyanide
- Nitrogen oxides
- Aldehydes
- N-nitrosamines
- Ketones
- Quinine
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
And now, its time to find where all these compounds are found that we inhale.
- Cigarettes Carbon monoxide is emitted from vehicle exhaust
- Arsenic and DDT are used in insect poison
- Hydrogen cyanide was used in the gas chambers in World War II and is currently used in rat poison
- Acetone is paint stripper and is a component of nail polish remover
- Ammonia is used in household cleaning products
- Butane and methanol are found in fuel
- Cadmium is a metal used in car batteries
- Phenol is used in fertilisers
- Naphthalene is a carcinogen used in mothballs
- Formaldehyde is used as a tissue and specimen preservative commonly found in science labs
Incomplete combustion of carbon-containing substances produces carbon monoxide.
Carbon monoxide causes damage to the lungs by depriving the body of oxygen. Smokers can have as much as 10 times as much carbon monoxide in their bloodstream as non-smokers. The end is death if the intake isn’t controlled.
Tar
Tar is a mixture of the compounds in cigarette smoke which condensate from a gas to a solid in the lungs to form a sticky brown substance, this is the cigarette smoke condensate. It is made of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and a wide range of other chemicals.
The tar that remains in the lung and gradually causes cells to die. Some of the cells that are ruined are cilia. Over time, the loss of this cell function can lead to emphysema.
Here you can read a lot more about the effects of smoking on your body.
FINAL NOTE
A cigarette is simply a blend of deadly chemical combined to cause death!
The reason why vaping is thought to be a 95% safer alternative is that it doesn’t have these harmful side-effects. We hope every smoker out there understands the price of life they’re paying on every puff of every cigarette.
“Put it out before it puts you out.”