Many people assume that cigarettes are nothing more than rolled tobacco in a slight piece of paper. They have a hard time understanding just why it is that smoking is so very harmful to them - after all, they burn candles without a problem, people have fireplaces in their homes without warnings from the Surgeon General, and of course fire has been so important for cooking food for generations.
So why all the hype and hullabaloo about smoking? What is it about this small piece of a burning leaf that makes it so terribly taboo?
The real truth about smoking is that cigarettes are much, much more than just rolled tobacco. If that was all they were, they may very well be much less dangerous than they are. But cigarettes actually contain many more ingredients than that.
What is so sad and shocking about the ingredients in cigarettes is that most smokers aren’t even aware of it. They simply continue to smoke on, thinking that there is nothing in them other than that burning leaf to hurt them. However, if most smokers really knew the truth about the ingredients in cigarettes - not to mention how they got there - they would probably be shocked!
THE HIDDEN TRUTH ABOUT CIGARETTES.
When tobacco companies first came into existence and decided that mass marketing cigarettes was a good idea, they needed a way to make sure that people continued to buy their products. After all, people had been hand-rolling their own cigarettes for generations, so there had to be a way for these cigarette manufacturers to make their products more special, more appealing to the consumer, in order for them to stay in business.
And to do that, tobacco companies decided to slip in some extra ingredients that would not only make their cigarettes taste better than anything people made at home, they were also meant to be more addictive.
That’s right, people are addicted to cigarettes not because of the tobacco itself, but because of the special ingredients that were purposely added by the tobacco companies to make them so.
SO WHAT’S REALLY IN THEM?
There are actually over 599 additives to cigarettes! If that weren’t bad enough, because the cigarette is actually burned and burning changes the chemical compound of any substance, there are over 4,000 chemical compounds that are created by cigarette smoking.
Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, and ammonia are all present in cigarette smoke. Forty-three known carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) are in mainstream smoke, passive or secondhand smoke, or both.
Notice how many of the ingredients in cigarettes are used to make other common household objects:
Mothballs contain naphthalenes, also found in cigarettes. This proven poison causes reproductive and brain breakdown.
The cadmium in batteries is extremely poisonous when found in cigarettes and results in kidney damage.
Tar is an ingredient found in roads and tires as well as cigarettes. A two pack a day smoker inhales one gram of tar a day. That is a quart of thick, gooey tar inhaled a year.
The toluene in glue and cigarettes is a toxic substance that produces euphoria and irritation of the air ways and lungs. This is the same substance that people crave when they sniff glue to get an artificial high; it is just as damaging as other illegal narcotics.
The arsenic used to kill rats is also found in cigarettes. It causes irritated lungs, abnormal heart beat, and a score of other symptoms. Arsenic is often used as a slow poison; in small doses it will affect virtually every major part of your body’s system, and will eventually kill you over time.
Acetone is an ingredient found in nail polish remover as well as cigarettes. It is a harsh chemical which irritates your lungs and can lead to cancer. When persons work in a nail salon, they are instructed to wear surgical type masks to protect them from the fumes; smokers purposely ingest this substance!
The toxic phenol found in plastics and cigarettes can cause kidney and liver damage and reduced blood pressure, resulting in severe sickness and possibly death.
The ammonia in bleach speeds the delivery of nicotine to smokers and changes the reading of tar in cigarettes, making it seem lower. Ammonia is a highly toxic substance; even its fumes can irritate the skin, the eyes, the mucus membranes, the throat, and all parts of your respiratory system. Ammonia fumes can also render one blind if they are strong enough.
So ask yourself, do you care to inhale the same ingredients found in nail polish remover, melted plastic, rat poison, batteries, and mothballs? And yet those are the same ingredients in every cigarette, not to mention tar, ammonia, nicotine, and other poisons. If your child were ingesting these ingredients, would you not be outraged? Would you not call for a ban on this product, and want to sue someone immediately?
Most of the chemicals inhaled in cigarette smoke stay in the lungs. The more you inhale, the better it feels-and the greater the damage to your lungs.
NICOTINE IS BAD ENOUGH AS IT IS.
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants; nightshade of course is poisonous to humans. It acts as a stimulant and is the main reason why smokers become addicted to cigarettes - there is actually a “high” that’s experienced when one smokes because of the nicotine.
According to the American Heart Association, “Nicotine addiction has historically been one of the hardest addictions to break.” The pharmacological and behavioral characteristics that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
Nicotine in small doses acts as a stimulant to the brain. In large doses, it’s a depressant, inhibiting the flow of signals between nerve cells. In even larger doses, it’s a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones. Nicotine in the bloodstream acts to make the smoker feel calm.
Nicotine is extremely dangerous because of how quickly it’s absorbed in the bloodstream. As nicotine enters the body, it is distributed quickly through the bloodstream and can cross the blood-brain barrier. On average it takes about seven seconds for the substance to reach the brain when inhaled. Nicotine causes an adrenaline rush, and affects the heart rate, blood pressure, and pulse of its users.
Nicotine’s mood-altering effects are also well documented. After the initial adrenaline rush, users report a feeling of relaxation and calm. It then reduces the appetite and raises the metabolism, causing some to lose weight when smoking, another reason why they become hooked.
However, all of these properties of nicotine are similar to the properties of many illegal narcotics. There is no health benefit to nicotine regardless of the feelings it produces in the user. The so-called “high” one experiences is artificial and temporary.
Additionally, the addictive properties of nicotine are extremely dangerous. Modern research shows that nicotine acts on the brain to produce a number of effects. Specifically, its addictive nature has been found to show that nicotine activates reward pathways-the circuitry within the brain that regulates feelings of pleasure and euphoria.
By “rewarding” the user, nicotine then makes them addicted to this feeling or sensation. That temporary high creates a craving for that experience again, much like someone coming down from the high of any other illegal narcotic. The brain’s ability to produce these reward pathways on its own is compromised each time it is created in an artificial way, causing the user to become hooked on that artificial substance.
AREN’T LIGHT CIGARETTES HEALTHIER?
Many people believe this thought, that light or ultra-light cigarettes are somehow healthier or that they contain less toxic ingredients, the way light beer contains less alcohol.
This actually isn’t true at all. In 2005, a federal judge ruled that cigarette companies were no longer able to use the terms “light” or “ultra-light” on cigarettes that were basically the same ingredients as regular cigarettes.
For many so-called “light” cigarettes, the amount of addictive nicotine was found to be the same, it was simply a reduction in tar that caused them to be labeled as such. While tar is one of the worst ingredients found in cigarettes, it’s certainly not the only toxic substance. The addictive, poisonous nicotine and other toxins were still present, at much the same levels.
THE TRUTH EXPOSED.
Many cigarette manufacturers balked at having to list their ingredients of their cigarettes, the way most junk food manufacturers were hesitant as well. When it was revealed all the toxic substances they had added to this product, the truth of their cover-up was exposed.
But again, most smokers don’t know - or don’t want to know - the truth about what’s in cigarettes. However, just refusing to acknowledge the fact of how dangerous they are doesn’t make them any less so.
When it’s time to quit smoking, many people turn to stop smoking aids to help them along. The days of going “cold turkey” are over, and rightly so. Smoking is as addictive as many illegal narcotics, and many people who try to quit on their own find the process traumatizing and almost […]
Many people who smoke are very aware of the consequences - lung cancer, mouth and throat cancers, bladder and liver cancer, increased risk of infertility and poor circulation, and other dangerous issues - but are willing to take the risk, even knowing that smoking kills more people every year than any other preventable cause.
If […]
It’s very difficult for some people to understand, but the effects of smoking touch more than just your lungs alone. While many still connect lung cancer with smoking, they are often uneducated about just how completely dangerous smoking effects can be.
Consider these areas of the body that are damaged by smoking. Your […]
Just what is secondhand smoking anyway? The real definition is inhaling the smoke that comes from the smoldering end of a cigarette and the smoke that is exhaled by a smoker as well. This is also called passive smoking, though not quite as often.
There is always much in the news about secondhand […]
If you’re someone who smokes and who has tried to quit in the past - maybe several times over! - chances are you may be ready to just scream at the top of your lungs, “Will someone please tell me how to quit smoking!”
If this sounds like you, don’t despair. There are many […]
In August of 2006, a federal judge ruled that the tobacco industry had actually engaged in racketeering practices, stating that the industry had engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to hide the dangers of smoking from their users. Tobacco companies were actually ordered to take out newspaper ads detailing smoking’s health effects.
The judge stated […]
Many who are trying to stop smoking are going “cold turkey,” that is, they are just stopping abruptly without the use of any quit smoking aids that are available to them. There may be medical reasons for this, or some may simply feel as if they “should” be able to quit on their […]
To be be kept informed of our regular site updates, simply enter your details below.
