Chemicals Found in Cigarette Smoke
Cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemical compounds. Many are toxic, and some are known carcinogens. Second hand smoke is dangerous air to breathe.
Lead-210 (Pb-210) and polonium-210 (Po-210) are poisonous, radioactive heavy metals that research has shown to be present in cigarette smoke.
The chemicals in cigarettes and cigarette smoke contain poisons, carcinogens and heavy, toxic metals.
Ammonia is also used to boost the impact of nicotine in manufactured cigarettes.
Inorganic arsenic is present in mainstream tobacco smoke and presumably in sidestream smoke as well.
Benzene is present in cigarette smoke and accounts for half of all human exposure to this health hazard.
Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal that is present in low levels in food, and in high levels in cigarette smoke.
Carbon monoxide(CO) is a poisonous, colorless and odorless gas that is produced as a result of incomplete burning of carbon-containing fuels.
Formaldehyde is responsible for some of the nose, throat and eye irritation smokers experience when breathing in cigarette smoke.
One of the toxic byproducts of cigarette smoke is hydrogen cyanide. Smokers inhale it with every puff they take.
Nicotine is a colorless, poisonous alkaloid, derived from the tobacco plant. Nicotine is also extremely addictive.
We certainly wouldn't knowingly breathe pesticides into our lungs, yet that is exactly what smokers do every time they take a puff of a cigarette.
Tar is the term used to describe the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes.
Tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines (TSNAs) are known to be some of the most potent carcinogens present in smokeless tobacco, snuff and tobacco smoke.
Steven Mulcahy authored this very in-depth college report on the toxic effects of cigarette smoke, both for the smoker and those affected by secondhand smoke.
