Smoking KILLS. Every year hundreds of thousands will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age. Cigarettes are full of chemicals and poisons. Cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals. Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number of cancers. The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. This can cause heart attacks and strokes. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated. Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes in up to a full cup (210g) of tar in a year. Changing to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs. Carbon Monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body and especially your heart.
Chemicals in Cigarettes and tobacco smoke make smoking harmful. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 different chemicals. At least 43 are known carcinogens (cause cancer in humans). Cigarettes are one of few products which can be sold legally which can harm and even kill you over time if used as intended. Currently there are ongoing lawsuits in the USA which aim to hold tobacco companies responsible for the effects of smoking on the health of long term smokers.
Benzene (petrol additive)
A colourless cyclic hydrocarbon obtained from coal and petroleum, used as a solvent in fuel and in chemical manufacture and contained in cigarette smoke. It is a known carcinogen and is associated with leukaemia.
Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
A colourless liquid, highly poisonous, used to preserve dead bodies, also found in cigarette smoke. Known to cause cancer, respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal problems.
Ammonia (toilet cleaner)
Used as flavouring, frees nicotine from tobacco turning it into a gas, found in dry cleaning fluids.
Acetone (nail polish remover)
Fragrant volatile liquid ketone, used as a solvent, for example, nail polish remover. Found in cigarette smoke.
Tar
Particulate matter drawn into lungs when you inhale on a lit cigarette. Once inhaled, smoke condenses and about 70% of the tar in the smoke is deposited in the smokers lungs.
Nicotine (Insecticide/addictive drug)
One of the most addictive substances known to man, a powerful and fast-acting medical and non-medical poison. This is the chemical which causes addiction.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) (Car exhaust fumes)
An odourless, tasteless and poisonous gas, rapidly fatal in large amounts, its the same gas that comes out of car exhausts and is the main gas in cigarette smoke, formed when the cigarette is lit.
Others you may recognise are:
Arsenic (rat poison), Hydrogen Cyanide (gas chamber poison)