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Loading...The Shocking Ingredients in Cigarettes
- Melissa Breyer
- November 6, 2011
- 7:01 am
- 295 comments
If you think cigarettes are simply dried tobacco leaves rolled in paper, you’re about 597 ingredients off. The tobacco industry has become master mixologists with the additives. Some ingredients are added for flavor, but research has shown that the key purpose of using additives is to improve tobacco’s potency resulting in increased addictiveness–and the additives they choose to use are dreadful.
I remember hearing something about “the list” back in the 1990s when tobacco companies first started being taken to task for their dastardly ways, but seeing the list again now that I’m educated about chemistry and health, I am absolutely staggered. It’s amazing this isn’t in the news everyday. It’s bad enough that many of these ingredients are approved for use in food–but that they haven’t been tested for burning? When burnt, the whole mess results in over 4,000 chemicals, including over 40 known carcinogenic compounds and 400 other toxins. These include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT.
You know it’s bad when the Phillip Morris website has this posted on their homepage: Nearly 5,000 chemicals have been identified in tobacco smoke to date. Public health authorities have classified between 45 and 70 of those chemicals, including carcinogens, irritants and other toxins, as potentially causing the harmful effects of tobacco use.
According to Dr. and Mrs. Quit, also known as Lowell Kleinman, M.D., and Deborah Messina-Kleinman, M.P.H., from the Quit Smoking Center, cigarette flavors have gone through many changes since cigarettes were first made. Initially, cigarettes were unfiltered, allowing the full “flavor” of the tar to come through. As the public became concerned about the health effects of smoking, filters were added. While this helped alleviate the public’s fears, the result was a cigarette that tasted too bitter. (And filters do not remove enough tar to make cigarettes less dangerous. They are just a marketing ploy to trick you into thinking you are smoking a safer cigarette.)
The solution to the bitter-tasting cigarette was easy–have some chemists add taste-improving chemicals to the tobacco. But once they got rolling they figured out they could really maximize the whole addiction part, what a hook. They found that a chemical similar to rocket fuel helps keep the tip of the cigarette burning at an extremely hot temperature, which allows the nicotine in tobacco to turn into a vapor so your lungs can absorb it more easily. Or how about ammonia? Adding ammonia to cigarettes allows nicotine in its vapor form to be absorbed through the lungs more quickly. This, in turn, means your brain can get a higher dose of nicotine with each inhalation. Now that’s efficiency.
For a start, here’s the who’s who of the most toxic ingredients used to make cigarettes tastier, and more quickly, effectively addictive:
Ammonia: Household cleaner.
Arsenic: Used in rat poisons.
Benzene: Used in making dyes, synthetic rubber.
Butane: Gas; used in lighter fluid.
Carbon monoxide: Poisonous gas.
Cadmium: Used in batteries.
Cyanide: Lethal poison.
DDT: A banned insecticide.
Ethyl Furoate: Causes liver damage in animals.
Lead: Poisonous in high doses.
Formaldehyde: Used to preserve dead specimens.
Methoprene: Insecticide.
Maltitol: Sweetener for diabetics.
Napthalene: Ingredient in mothballs.
Methyl isocyanate: Its accidental release killed 2000 people in Bhopal, India, in 1984.
Polonium: Cancer-causing radioactive element.
For the whole list of 599 additives used in cigarettes, see the BBC Worldservice page What’s in a Cigarette.
Read more about cigarettes and the Great American Smokeout:
Lessons from a Smoking Cessation Class
Make the Pledge, Live Longer, Live Better
Read more: Cancer, COPD, General Health, Health, Heart & Vascular Disease, High Blood Pressure, additives, cancer, cigarettes, DDT, Formaldehyde, lead, mothballs, nicotine, smoking, tobacco
By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Healthy & Green Living
Melissa Breyer
Melissa Breyer is a writer and editor with a background in sustainable living, specializing in food, science and design. She is the co-author of True Food (National Geographic) and has edited and written for regional and international books and periodicals, including The New York Times Magazine. Melissa lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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Thank you! (n, p, t)
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this is so true. they slow move from the foot of the bed to right next to my face. they never give…
ty
295 comments
+ add your ownTo the author of this article;
Your list of poisonous chemicals contradicts the BBC Worldservice page 'What’s in a Cigarette' website that you quote.
20. AMMONIA
Occurs in human/animal breath due to protein metabolism; dissolved in water it is a naturally occurring substance that plays a vital role in protein metabolism in animals, including man.
21. AMMONIUM BICARBONATE GRAS
used in baked goods.
22. AMMONIUM HYDROXIDE GRAS
found in cured pork.
23. AMMONIUM PHOSPHATE DIBASIC GRAS
used in dough, ice cream, gelatin and puddings.
24. AMMONIUM SULFIDE - FEMA GRAS
used in baked goods, meat products, gravies, condiments.
90. CARBON DIOXIDE GRAS
used in beverages, meat products, processed fruits, dairy products.
carbon monoxide, cyanide, cadmium, ddt, not on the list!
189. ETHYL FUROATE
found in cocoa, almonds, beer, guava, kiwi fruit, papaya, white wine; used in processed meats.
lead & formaldehyde are not on the list.
349. METHOPRENE
EPA approved pesticide for use on tobacco; allowed by FDA to be used in raisins, prunes, peaches, oat cereals; also approved by EPA for eggs, milk, poultry.
339. MALTOL; FEMA GRAS
found in barley, cocoa, coffee, beef, wheat bread, butter, hazelnut, licorice, malt, milk, peanut; used in frozen dairy goods, jellies, baked goods.
415. beta-NAPTHYL ETHYL ETHER - FEMA GRAS
used in soft candy.
Methyl isocyanate & polonium are not on the list.
The government is not now, nor has it ever been (as far as tobacco-use goes) FOR the smoker, his/her rights or health!
The government and Big Tobacco go hand-in-hand to share millions of $$$ and pass laws beneficial to the tobacco industry!
The government and Big Tobacco knew many, many years ago how bad smoking was--but rather than help, they chose to make the situation more deadly.
Governments should simply pass laws making it illegal for companies to put addictive ingredience in any product period as this would stop the tobacco companies as well as anyone else who is putting addictive ingredients our products without our knowledge.
Great advice... Thanks...*Quitting Help*I went here for here for advice also and it helped me... http://wherecanifindelectroniccigarettes.us/
Absolutely on Target.. Great job .
These are some things that helped me http://wherecanifindelectroniccigarettes.us/
Whatever you do Just Stay strong and follow thru and QUIT!
They make it more addictive so people won't quit. And the second hand smoke, which burns the chemicals together, is more harmful than the actual smoke.
scary!
ty
Cigarettes are already bad for you, the added crap only reinforces this fact, not to mention the warning label stating they cause cancer. People have been warned about the dangers of smoking. Those that still want to smoke should deal with the consequences....no pity. Do we need to beat a dead horse some more?
Just forwarded this to my son in law.
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