Cigarette Smoking - A Silent Killer

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Are we aware of what we inhale while smoking?

Smoking is responsible for a large number of deaths every year across the world. It's an addiction, which is extremely difficult to quit. This is why many smokers, despite being aware of its ill-effects, are not able to kick the bad habit.

Tobacco consumption in any form, be it cigarette smoking or gutka-chewing, is a part of daily life for many users. However, they ought to know what really goes on at the molecular level while smoking or chewing tobacco. The smoke that enters the lungs through the tobacco rod of a cigarette is made of tiny particles mixed with gases. One cigarette and one beedi contains about 4000 chemicals, 51 of which are carcinogenic.

Nicotine is an addictive agent that makes a person a slave to tobacco. It's a strong poisonous drug, the main ingredient found in insecticides or bug sprays. If taken in its purest form, just a drop of it can kill a person. Tar is the oily residue produced when tobacco passes through the filter of a cigarette. When a smoker inhales smoke, a lot of tar sticks to the lungs and blackens them. Another chemical in cigarettes is carbon monoxide - a very poisonous gas and this gas is found in the exhausts of a car. This interferes with our respiratory system and circulatory system (consisting of heart, arteries, and veins).

Some of the most prominent chemicals found in cigarettes are:

• Carbon monoxide
• Nicotine
• Tar
• Arsenic
• Ammonia
• Hydrogen cyanide
• Cyanide
• Acetone
• Butane
• DDT
• Formaldehyde
• Sulphuric acid
• Cadmium
• Freon
• Geranic acid
• Methoprene
• Maltitol