What's In Cigarette Smoke?

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. These include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT.

Nicotine is highly addictive. Smoke containing nicotine is inhaled into the lungs, and the nicotine reaches your brain in just six seconds.

Nicotine in small doses acts as a stimulant to the brain. In large doses, it's a depressant, inhibiting the flow of signals between nerve cells. In even larger doses, it's a lethal poison, affecting the heart, blood vessels, and hormones. Nicotine in the bloodstream acts to make the smoker feel calm.

As a cigarette is smoked, the amount of tar inhaled into the lungs increases, and the last puff contains more than twice as much tar as the first puff. Carbon monoxide makes it harder for red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Tar is a mixture of substances that together form a sticky mass in the lungs.

Most of the chemicals inhaled in cigarette smoke stay in the lungs. The more you inhale, the better it feels—and the greater the damage to your lungs.

29 Per Cent Indians Exposed To Second-hand Smoke Outside Home

About five in ten adults (52.3 per cent) were exposed to second–hand smoke at home and 29.0 per cent at public places– mainly in public transport and restaurants.
The study found that 34.6 per cent of adults use tobacco in any form out of which 47.9 per cent were males and 20.3 per cent were females.
While 14 per cent of adults– 24.3 per cent of males and 2.9 per cent of females– smoked tobacco, 25.0 per cent of adults chewed tobacco.
More than five per cent of adults were cigarette smokers out of which 10.3 per cent were males and 0.8 per cent were females. Bidi smokers were 9.2 per cent of adults– 16.0 per cent of males and 1.9 per cent of females.
Among daily tobacco users, 60.2 per cent consumed tobacco within half an hour of waking up. Average age at initiation of tobacco use was 17.8 with 25.8 per cent of females starting tobacco use before the age of 15, the study said.
Among minors (age 15–17), 9.6 per cent consumed tobacco in some form and most of them were able to purchase tobacco products.
Five in ten current smokers (46.6 per cent) and users of smokeless tobacco (45.2 per cent) planned to quit or at least thought of quitting.

Words from Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad

Releasing the report, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad today said that while livelihood of tobacco growing farmers cannot be endangered, the Government must work towards moving farmers and farm workers out of the tobacco industry.

“We cannot indefinitely tolerate a public health hazard in the name of protecting livelihoods,” he said after releasing the first Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) – India 2010, here.

Emphasising the need for inter–sectoral coordination for comprehensive tobacco control strategies, Mr. Azad said the health ministry has formed collaborations with the Agriculture Ministry for a project on alternative crops to tobacco and coordination with other stakeholder ministries such as Human Resource Development, Information and Broadcasting, Rural Development and Labour Ministry.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State Dinesh Trivedi called for clearer pictorial warnings and emphasis on monitoring chewing tobacco use. He also emphasised the need for alternative crops to tobacco.

The survey was conducted under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, an autonomous organisation of Ministry of Health acting as the nodal agency.

Technical assistance was provided by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and RTI International.

Interviews were conducted with 69,296 adults age 15 and above, 33,767 men and 35,529 women age 15 and above. The sample size was of 72,000 households and key survey activities having been carried out in 19 languages.

Approximately 5.5 million people die due to tobacco use every year globally, out of which close to 0.9 million deaths occur in India due to diseases related to tobacco use.

Symptoms From Quitting Smoking

The Cold Hard Facts On What Type of Symptoms You Are Likely To Have When You Quit Smoking.

The longer a person have smoked, the more intense the following symptoms are likely to be:

Slower pulse

Drop in blood pressure

Occasional constipation

Occasional drop in the ability to perform difficult tasks and loss of concentration and/or patience.

Dizziness

Tingling in the arms and legs

Coughing

Smokers also experience the following:

Feelings of craving

Tension

Irritability

Restlessness

Depression

Source: http://www.smoking-facts.net/Smoking-Symptoms.html

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EHBA5JHd0E&feature=related

Quotes From Tobacco Companies

“It seems unlikely that we will be able to locate a toxicologist [ a scientist who studies poisons] who will give a 'clean' opinion to tobacco, even if (s)he agrees that ingredients pose no risk. The mot realistic hope is that we can get an opinion that tobacco is a 'risk factor.'” -1986 R.J. Reynolds (RJR) document

“This young adult market, the 14-to24 age group...represent(s) tomorrow's cigarette business.” - 1974 RJR memo.

“...comic strip type copy might get a much higher readership among younger people than any other type of copy.” - 1973 RJR memo.

“[T]he amount of evidence accumulated to indict [accuse] cigarette smoke as a health hazard is overwhelming. The evidence challenging such an indictment is scant.” - 1962 RJR memo

Cigarettes “cause or predispose, lung cancer...They contribute to certain cardiovascular disorders...They may well be truly causative in emphysema, etc., etc.” - 1963 internal memo from Addision Yeaman, executive president of Brown and Williamson, president of Council for Tobacco Research.

“Without nicotine...there would be no smoking...” - 1972 Philip Morris researcher

“We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug...” - 1963 internal memo from Addison Yeaman, executive vice president of Brown and Williamson, president of Council for Tobacco Research.

Source: http://www.smoking-facts.net/Real-Quotes.html

Teen Smoking Facts

Each day 3,000 children smoke their first cigarette.

At least 3 million adolescents are smokers.

Tobacco use primarily begins in early adolescence, typically by age 16.

Almost all first use occurs before high school graduation.

20 percent of American teens smoke.

Roughly 6 million teens in the US today smoke despite the knowledge that it is addictive and leads to disease.

Of every 100,000 15 year old smokers, tobacco will prematurely kill at least 20,000 before the age of 70.

Of the 3,000 teens who started smoking today, nearly 1,000 will eventually die as a result from smoking.

Adolescent girls who smoke and take oral birth control pills greatly increase their chances of having blood clots and strokes.

According to the Surgeon's General, Teenagers who smoke were:

• Three times more likely to use alcohol.
• Eight times are likely to smoke marijuana.
• And 22 times more likely to use Cocaine.

Although only 5 percent of high school smokers said that they would definitely be smoking five years later, close to 75 percent were still smoking 7 to 9 years later.

A person who starts smoking at age 13 will have a more difficult time quitting, has more health-related problems and probably will die earlier than a person who begins to smoke at age 21.

Kids who smoke experience changes in the lungs and reduced lung growth, and they risk not achieving normal lung function as an adult.

Kids who smoke have significant health problems, including cough and phlegm production, decreased physical fitness and unfavorable lipid profile.

If your child's best friends smoke, then your youngster is 13 times more likely to smoke than if his or her friends did not smoke.

More than 90 percent of adult smokers started when they were teens.

Adolescents who have two parents who smoke are more than twice as likely as youth without smoking parents to become smokers.

A 2001 Survey found that 69.4 percent of teenage smokers reported never being asked for proof of age when buying cigarettes in a store. The same survey found that 62.4 percent were allowed to buy cigarettes even when the retailer was aware they were under eighteen.