by Rene Michael Browne

Created on: February 22, 2010

On January 11, 1964, the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health announced cigarette smoking caused lung cancer and heart disease. You would have thought after this announcement everyone would have quit smoking. The cigarette industry would have dried up and went out of business. Instead, the cigarette industry expanded and people continued to smoke despite these warnings. 

In recent years, additional information has been released regarding the chemicals found in cigarettes and the dangerous affects it has on the human body. We now know there are over four thousand chemicals including two hundred poisonous and appropriately sixty carcinogenic (cancer causing) compounds in one cigarette.  Would knowing more about your brand of cigarettes help you quit smoking for good? Let’s take a look at just a few of those chemicals.

Nicotine

Nicotine is found in tobacco leaves and is a powerful addictive drug. It is more dangerous than all the addictive drugs combined.  A cigarette contains appropriately 10 mg of nicotine. The average smoker absorbs between 2 to 3 mg of nicotine per cigarette. When nicotine enters the body it causes blood vessels to constrict and interfere with the flow of blood to the heart. As a result, it is common for smokers to have high blood pressure and be unaware they have the condition.  Untreated high blood pressure or hypertension increase the risk for a heart attack, stroke or death.   

Tar

Tar is brown, sticky and can be found in solid form at the end of a smoked cigarette. Cigarettes can contain a low or high amount of tar depending on the brand. A typical high tar cigarette has more than 22 mg of tarwith 70% of it is deposited into the lungs.  Tar in the human body causes tumors in the lungs or lung caner.  It damages the healthy cells designed to protect the lungs from developing tumors. 

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide is a tasteless, odorless, poisonous gas in the cigarette smoke. The same chemical that come out of a car’s exhaust pipes. The high levels of carbon monoxide in one cigarette blocks oxygen from being released into the blood stream. Red blood cells are poisoned preventing them from carrying oxygen throughout the body. When the body tissues stop getting the proper amount of oxygen, they will eventually stop functioning.  Carbon monoxide is also responsible for fatty deposits clogging the arteries which lead to high blood pressure, stroke,

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