What’s in a Cigarette?
More than 4,000 chemicals, including over 60 known cancer causing substances and other poisons, including:
- Tar – (road surface tar) 70% is deposited in the lungs
- Nicotine – effects include increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Carbon Monoxide – a poisonous gas (such as from exhaust fumes) causing breathing problems
- Ammonia – bleach found in cleaning agents
- Arsenic – deadly poison used in insecticides
- Benzene – used as a solvent in fuel and chemical manufacturing
- Acetone – solvent used for example in nail polish remover
- Shellac – when mixed with denatured alcohol the resin becomes a wood varnish
- Formaldehyde -highly poisonous and used to preserve dead bodies
- Cadmium – highly poisonous metal used in batteries
Contra ban tobacco has also been found to contain rat droppings, uring, faeces and dead skin.
Non-urgent advice: For every 1,000 young adults who smoke, 250 will be killed by tobacco
Smokers will have grey skin & may have many more wrinkles than non-smokers.
Smokers may have hollow cheeks & look gaunt.
Smoking has a drying effect on the skin’s surface & depletes the skin of oxygen & essential nutrients.
Half of long-term smoker will die before retirement age.
Smokers on average lose 16 years of life.
Smoking can reduce female fertility by 30% and cause impotence, reduced sperm count & motility in men.
Smoking may cause psoriasis which is an extremely uncomfortable and disfiguring skin condition.
Smoking causes lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease & coronary heart disease.
Smoking is associated with premature births, low birth weight, preterm-related deaths & cot death.
Smoking causes halitosis (bad breath), gum disease, stained teeth & may cause teeth to fall out.
Second hand smoke can cause disorders ranging from minor eye and throat irritation through to heart disease & lung cancer. Children are particularly vulnerable and exposure increases the risk of glue ear, asthma and other respiratory disorders. An estimated 10,000 premature deaths a year are due to secondhand smoke.