Four Thousand Reasons And More To Quit Smoking

It's no secret that tobacco cigarettes are bad for your health. We've known of their detrimental effects for decades, but people still continue to smoke. A lot of smokers are fully aware of the risks of smoking, while others are less knowledgeable about the long term effects of their habit. While the drug they are after, nicotine, may not be considered as bad, it's still listed as a poison in the medical field. In fact, if you were to administer straight nicotine directly into your body, it would likely kill you, since nicotine is around 3 times more toxic than arsenic. Oddly enough, arsenic can be found in cigarette smoke as well. Ever wonder what else is in there?

What a lot of people don't think about at the cash register check out when they're buying cigarettes is the fact that when you buy cigarettes, you are also buying the chemicals that come with them. About how many are there? There are about 4000+ chemicals that are associated with tobacco smoke. Of those 4000 or so, around 50 of them are known to be carcinogenic, or cancer causing. As mentioned though, a lot of people know this, but they continue to smoke. When you look at it, 4000 is just a number. So rather than look at just the number, it's smart to at least glimpse into what those numbers mean.

Nickel, lead, arsenic, benzene, cadmium, urethane, chromium, ammonium hydroxide, and the list could go on and on. Tar is probably one of the more commonly known compounds in tobacco smoke. Tar is a combination of several chemicals. It's a sticky substance and is responsible for staining the teeth, fingers, etc. of smokers and whatever the smoke may come into contact with. Tar is also the main thing responsible for the "smoker's cough." It coats the throat and lungs like an irritant, so the body forces a cough in attempt to expel it from the body. Tar is hard to remove however, as many smokers have found out when they try to whiten their teeth or even scrub the walls of their house.

Arsenic, which is common in rat poison, is found in trace amounts in cigarette smoke. Benzene, which is a know carcinogen, is found in cigarettes and gasoline alike. However, due to the knowledge of it being a carcinogen, it's use in gasoline has been limited. Anyone else think that makes no sense seeing as how it's still allowed into cigarettes? Even some rare elements like beryllium are found in cigarettes. Exposure to most any of these ingredients by themselves alone pose health risks, so it seems baffling as to why anyone would continue in their nicotine without attempting change.