What
are the chemicals in cigarette smoke?
Cigarette smoke
contains over 4,000 chemical compounds.
These
include 60 that have been found to cause cancer.
Many other
toxic agents are also in cigarettes, some of which are manufactured
during the process of smoking the cigarette (or cigar).
A lighted cigarette
can generate more than 150 billion tar particles per cubic
inch. It is these particles that make up the visible portion
of cigarette smoke.
According to
chemists at the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, cigarette smoke can
be up to 10,000 times more concentrated than the automobile pollution
at rush hour on a highway or freeway.
This visible
smoke, however, contributes only 5 percent to 8 percent to the total
content of cigarette smoke. What you can't see are the vapors or
gases in the cigarette smoke. Besides nitrogen and oxygen, the vapor
also contains many toxic gases, including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde,
hydrogen cyanide, acrolein, and nitrogen oxides.
Researchers
have identified that cigarette smoke includes the following carcinogens
(chemicals shown to cause cancer):
Acrolein
4-Aminobiphenyl
Aromatic
Amines
Aromatic
Nitrohydrocarbons
Arsenic
Benzene
Benz{a}anthracene
Benzo{a}pyrene
Benzo
{b}fluoranthene
Benzo
{c}phenanthrene
Benzo{e}pyrene
Benzo{j}fluoranthene
Cadmium
Chromium
Chrysene
Dibenz{a,j}acridine
Dibenz{a,c}anthracene
Dibenz{a,h}acridine
Dibenzo{a,h}pyrene
Dibenzo{a,i}pyrene
Dibenzo{c,g}carbazole
Dichlorostilbene
4-Ethycatechol
Formaldehyde
Hydrazine
Indeno{1,2,3-cd}pyrene
Methylchrysene
Mehtylfluoranthene
Mehtylnaphtalenes
1-Methylindoles
3-Methylcatechol
4-Methylcatechol
4(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-butanone
2-Naphthylamine
Nickel
Nitropropane
Nitrosodimethylamine
Nitrosoethymethylamine
Nitrosodiethylamine
Nitrosodi-n-propylamine
Nitrosodi-n-butylamine
Nitrosopyrrolidine
Nitrosopiperidine
Nitrosomorpholine
N'-Nitrosonornicotine
N'-Nitrosoanabasine
N'-Nitrosoanatabine
Polonium-210
(Radon)
Urethane
Vinyl
Chloride.
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