WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY

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WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY

 

Cigarette...contains this much stuff...Did any of us knew it is so cheap????

 

The chemical components of cigarette smoke Danger poison - Stop smoking

 

Nicotine

 

Nicotine is a powerful insecticide and poisonous for the nervous systems.

Furthermore, there is enough (50 mg) in four cigarettes to kill a man in just a

few minutes if it were injected directly into the bloodstream. Indeed,

fatalities have occurred with children after they had swallowed cigarettes or

cigarette butts.

 

When diluted in smoke, nicotine reaches the brain in just seven seconds, it

stimulates the brain cells and then blocks the nervous impulse. This is where

addiction to tobacco arises. Nicotine also causes accelerated heart rate, but at

the same time it leads to contracting and hardening of the arteries: the heart

pumps more but receives less blood. The result is twice as many coronary

attacks. Nicotine thus also increases the consumption of lipids (which is why it

has a weight-loss effect) and induces temporary hyperglycaemia (hence the

appetite suppressing effect).

 

Carbon monoxide (CO)

 

This is the asphyxiating gas produced by cars, which makes up 1.5% of exhaust

fumes. But smokers inhaling cigarette smoke breathe in 3.2% carbon monoxide –

and directly from the source.

 

Oxygen is mostly transported in blood by haemoglobin. When we smoke, however,

the carbon monoxide attaches itself to the haemoglobin 203 times more quickly

than oxygen does, thereby displacing the oxygen; this in turn asphyxiates the

organism. This causes the following cardiovascular complaints: narrowing of the

arteries, blood clots, arteritis, gangrene, heart attack, etc. . . . but also a

loss of reflexes and visual and mental problems. It takes between six and 24

hours for the carbon monoxide to leave the blood system.

 

Irritants

 

These substances paralyse and then destroy the cilia of the bronchial tubes,

responsible for filtering and cleaning the lungs. They slow down respiratory

output and irritate the mucus membranes, causing coughs, infections and chronic

bronchitis.

 

Tars

 

As the cilia are blocked (see paragraph above), the tars in the cigarette smoke

are deposited and collect on the walls of the respiratory tract and the lungs,

and cause them to turn black. So, just because a smoker is not coughing, it

doesn't mean that he or she is healthy! And this fact merely serves to pour

water on one of the most common and poorest excuses given by smokers. The

carcinogenic action of the tars is well known: they are responsible for 95% of

lung cancers. It takes two days at least after cessation of smoking for the

cilia to start functioning properly again, albeit only gradually. By smoking one

packet of cigarettes every day, a smoker is pouring a cupful of these tars into

his or her lungs every year (225 grams on average)!

 

Chemistry of Tobacco Smoke

 

No less than 4000 irritating, suffocating, dissolving, inflammable, toxic,

poisonous, carcinogenic gases and substances and even radioactive compounds

(nickel, polonium, plutonium, etc.) have been identified in tobacco smoke. Some

of these are listed hereafter: Benzopyrene, dibenzopyrene, benzene, isoprene,

toluene (hydorcarbons); naphthylamines; nickel, polonium, plutonium, arsenic,

cadmium (metallic constituents); carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, nitric oxide,

nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulphide (gases); methyl alcohol, éthanol, glycerol

or glycerine, glycol (alcohols and esters); acetaldehyde, acrolein, acetone

(aldehydes and ketones); cyanhydric or prussic acid, carboxyl derivatives

(acids); chrysene, pyrrolidine, nicoteine, nicotinine, nicoteline, nornicotine,

nitrosamines (alkaloids or bases); cresol (phenols), etc.

 

" Be Smart , Don't Start "

 

Over the past 40 years, smoking has declined by about half, thanks in part to

anti-smoking media campaigns.

 

But anti-tobacco messages and ads often face fierce opposition from the

cigarette manufacturers who have worked vigorously to diminish their impact.

 

Anti-smoking ads began in the late 1960s when the FCC deemed cigarette smoking

controversial and therefore subject to the Fairness Doctrine, which requires

opening the airwaves to public service messages on opposing viewpoints. The ads

were very effective in reducing smoking, despite vigorous counter-advertising by

the tobacco companies. (According to a 1972 study, anti-smoking ads cut

cigarette smoking by 531 cigarettes per person per year, while tobacco company

advertising increased consumption by only 95 cigarettes per person per year.)