Poisons in cigarettes
Exactly what are you inhaling?
When a smoker inhales cigarette smoke, the surface area of the lungs allows the nicotine to pass into the bloodstream almost immediately. This is the nicotine "hit" that smokers crave. There is, however, a lot more to cigarette smoke than just the nicotine. In fact, there are more than 4000 chemical substances that make up cigarette smoke, many of them toxic.
Poisons in Cigarette smoke are made up of 43 carcinogenic (cancer causing) substances
More than 400 other toxins that are in tobacco smoke are also found in wood varnish, nail polish remover, and rat poison. As you can imagine an accumulation of these substances over time in the body can cause serious illnesses and disease to the heart, lungs and other organs and tissues. Some of the chemicals in cigarettes include:
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• Benzene - Poisonous gas, used in petrol fumes known to cause leukaemia.
• Ethanol - Used in anti-freeze. • Arsenic - Poison.
• Methanol - Used in rocket fuel. • Toluene - Industrial solvent.
• Ammonia - Used in many cleaning products. • Acetone - Used in paint stripper.
• Cadmium - Used in car batteries, known to cause cancer. • Butane - Lighter fuel.