Quit Smoking Monday Messages

Radioactive Cigarette Smoke

From embalming fluid to pesticides to cyanide gas used in Nazi Germany concentration camps, the list of poisonous and/or carcinogenic compounds present in cigarette smoke is staggering. Two of the chemicals in cigarette smoke fall into a category that is especially frightening - radioactive metal compounds.

Lead and Polonium in Tobacco Smoke

When uranium, an ore that occurs in small amounts in nature, breaks down, radium is released as radon gas into the atmosphere. Once that occurs, radon gas decays quickly, producing lead-210 (Pb-210) and polonium-210 (Po-210), highly radioactive metals (known as radon decay products). Radium is also present in phosphate fertilizers that are often used in tobacco farming.

As the radium in soil around tobacco plants releases radon gas, and ultimately, the tiny lead and polonium particles float free, they attach to bits of dust and are carried to the surface of tobacco leaves. And because tobacco leaves are covered with thousands of fine hairs, these radioactive chemicals grab hold and stay put -- from the field all of the way to the smoker's lungs.

Why?

Lead-210 and polonium-210 are insoluble in water, so they are not removed during the cleaning and cigarette manufacturing process.

Radioactive Metals in Cigarette Smoke

These toxins are just two of the hundreds of poisonous and/or carcinogenic chemicals present in cigarette smoke. Smoking offers you nothing other than disease and ultimately -- death.

Don't surrender another day of your precious life to tobacco -- quit smoking now.

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Take The Quit Smoking Monday Pledge

Healthy Monday encourages us to think of every Monday as a day that we can begin work anew on goals that we have for ourselves. If you're still smoking, put your cigarettes down and get started on your quit program today.

• Quit Smoking Monday Messages Archive

We all have the ability to quit smoking successfully, and we all deserve a life that is free of addiction. Honor your life by choosing Monday as the day to start and reinforce your quit program.

You can quit smoking ... and we’re here to help you, one simple Monday at a time.

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