There are approximately 600 ingredients in cigarettes. When burned, cigarettes create more than 7,000 chemicals. At least 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, and many are toxic. Many of these chemicals also are found in consumer products, but these products have warning labels—such as rat poison packaging. While the public is warned about the danger of the poisons in these products, there is no such warning for the toxins in tobacco smoke. Here are a few of the chemicals in tobacco smoke and other places they are found:
Cigarettes are a small roll of porous paper containing a rod of chopped up tobacco leaf. Cigarettes are designed so that the tobacco can be smoked, by lighting the cigarette and breathing in the smoke. At the mouth end of the cigarette there is a second layer of porous paper (called tipping paper) and a filter. The tipping paper is designed to allow fresh air to infiltrate when the smoker inhales. This fresh air reduces the harshness of the smoke. The filter cools the smoke and reduces the flow of smoke out of the cigarette. Cigarettes also contain additives such as sugars and flavourings which are used to increase shelf life, control the rate at which the cigarette burns and control the delivery of the chemicals. Cigarettes vary in strength, taste and intensity depending upon:
The most preferred tobacco leaf in Australia is Virginia tobacco. Virginia tobacco has a high sugar content. While this makes the smoke from the cigarette sweeter it also produces more acidic smoke. When the sugars burn a number of harmful acids are produced. In Australia blended tobacco leaf cigarettes are also available. More information on Tobacco. In 1987 labels were added to Australian cigarette packets which detailed the average yield of the main cigarette constituents, nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide, in each cigarette. From the content of tar, the cigarettes were categorised as ‘ultra light’, ‘light’ or ‘regular’. It was originally believed that low tar cigarettes would reduce the smoker’s exposure to hazardous chemicals. It has since been found that the ‘light’ cigarettes were delivering comparable doses of chemicals, were just as addictive as regular cigarettes and did not reduce disease or mortality rates amongst smokers. In 2006 the labels were removed when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission determined these categories were misleading. Cigarette smokeCigarette or tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemical compounds which are present in the solid phase, the gas phase or the liquid phase. The chemicals that make up the solid phase are tiny solid particles including phenols, nicotine and naphthalene. The major gases include carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrogen cyanide and the liquid vapours include formaldehyde, methane, benzene, ammonia and acetone. The majority of these chemicals come from burning tobacco and the rest are a mixture of chemicals from the burning of the cigarette paper, the additives and the agricultural chemicals left from farming the tobacco leaves. The tobacco smoke that comes out of a cigarette is made up two types of smoke; side stream smoke from the burning tip of the cigarette, and mainstream smoke that is delivered to the smoker via the filter or mouth end. Tar, carbon monoxide and nicotine are the mainstream components of the smoke but they are not alone responsible for the deleterious effects associated with smoking and passive smoking. There are at least 60 chemicals in smoke which have been identified as carcinogens and 30 identified metals, some of which are radioactive. Chemical compounds found in all phases of cigarette smoke have been associated with independent negative effects on the smoker, which means they produce their own separate damage. These are just some of these chemicals found in cigarette smoke:
These chemical names may not mean very much to most people until they realise where else these chemicals are found and then it becomes evident just how harmful they are. The following is a list of some chemicals found in cigarette smoke and where else they are found:
|
For more information on smoking and its health effects, and some useful tools, videos and animations, see Smoking. |
References
- Tar Information Sheet [online]. Quitnow 2006 [cited Jun 2010]. Available from: URL: http://www.quitnow.info.au/internet/quitnow/publishing.nsf/Content/tar
- Stellman SD, Djordjevic MV. Monitoring the tobacco use epidemic II: The agent: Current and emerging tobacco products. Preventive Medicine. 2009; 48(1 Suppl): S11-5.
- Adamopoulos D, Argacha JF, Gujic M, Preumont N, Degaute JP, van de Borne P. Acute effects of nicotine on arterial stiffness and wave reflection in healthy young non-smokers. Clin Experiment Pharmacol Physiol. 2009; 36(8): 784–9.
- Paulson JR, Yang T, Selvaraj PK. Nicotine exacerbates brain edema during in vitro and in vivo focal ischemic conditions. J Pharmacol Exper Therapeut. 2010; 332(2): 371-9.
- Department of Health and Ageing. Fact Sheet: How smoking harms your health [online]. Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. 2004 [cited Jun 2010]. Available from URL: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/D87C1389F867B087CA25774B007C58E2/$File/tobharm.pdf
- Yee BE, Ahmed MI, Brugge D, et al. Second-hand smoking and carboxyhemoglobin levels in children: a prospective observational study. Pediatr Anesthes. 2010; 20(1): 82–9.
- Palozza P, Serini S, Trombino S, Lauriola L, Ranelletti FO, Calviello G. Dual role of b-carotene in combination with cigarette smoke aqueous extract on the formation of mutagenic lipid peroxidation products in lung membranes: dependence on pO2. Carcinogenesis. 2006; 27(12): 2383–91.
- Frazer-Abel AA, McCue JM, Lazis S, Portas M, Lambert C, Freed BM. Cigarette tar phenols impede T cell cycle progression by inhibiting cyclin-dependent kinases. Molecular Immunology. 2007; 44(4): 488-93.
- Balakumar P, Kaur J. Is nicotine a key player or spectator in the induction and progression of cardiovascular disorders? Pharmacol Research. 2009; 60(5): 361-8.
- Tobacco in Australia: The construction and labelling of Australian cigarettes [online].The cancer council, 2010 [cited Jun 2010]. Available from: http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-12-tobacco-products/12-3-labelling-of-tar-nicotine-and-carbon-monoxide
- Action in smoking and health: Essential information on what’s in a cigarette [online]. ASH 2010 [cited June 2010]. Available from: www.ash.org.uk
- Background brief: What’s in cigarettes [online].Quit 2003 [cited July 2010]. Available from URL: http://www.quit.org.au/downloads/BB/05What.pdf
- The truth: What’s in a cigarette? [online] MDSI 2008 [cited July 2010]. Available from URL: http://www.mdsi.org.au/smoking_matters/SmokingMattersA4Flyer_Web.pdf
- Make smoking history: Cigarette ingredients [online]. Cancer council WA, 2009 [cited July 2010]. Available from: URL: http://www.cancerwa.asn.au/resources/2009-12-22-Cigarette-ingredients.pdf
- Ipsos-Eureka social research institute: Cigarette ingredients and emissions disclosure [online]. Department of health and aging, 2009 [cited July 2010]. Available from: URL: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/