Smoking - The Facts

What's in a Cigarette?

Believe it or not there are about 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. These poisonous chemicals include:

Tar: About 70% of the tar is left in smokers' lungs when they inhale cigarette smoke, and this causes many serious lung diseases.

Carbon Monoxide (CO): is an odourless, tasteless and poisonous gas. It combines with molecules in the blood that are supposed to carry oxygen; this makes breathing more difficult. Oxygen is essential for our bodies to work properly. Up to 15% of a smoker's blood may be carrying CO instead of oxygen, which means the heart has to work harder, which can cause coronary heart disease and circulation problems.

Acetone: This is widely used as a solvent, for example in nail polish remover.

Ammonia: Ammonia is found in cleaning fluids.

Arsenic: A deadly poison, used in insecticides.

Formaldehyde: This is used to preserve dead bodies.

Cadmium: A highly poisonous metal used in batteries.

Shellac: This becomes a wood varnish when mixed with a form of alcohol.

Benzene: This is used as a solvent in fuel and chemical manufacturing.

Cyanide: A deadly poison.