Cigarettes Cointain

What's in cigarettes? Do you know?

Tobacco smoke is a mixture of gases and small particles composed of water, tar and nicotine. The tar is a messy mixture of hundreds of toxic chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer (eg, nitrosamines, benzpyrene).

Lot of gas in tobacco smoke are harmful. These include carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and other toxic irritants such as formaldehyde and acrolein. Due to high temperatures (above 800 ° C or 1400 ° F), the burning of a cigarette is like a miniature chemical factory. It offers many other harmful chemicals found in tobacco off or supported by the use of smokeless tobacco (eg snuff, which contains no tar or gas). In total, over 4,000 chemical compounds have been identified in tobacco smoke.

The chemicals that cause cancer are mainly in the tar. Tar, with a little 'annoying, it can also be partly responsible for chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Nitrogen oxides are suspected, but the main agents responsible are not yet known. Neither carbon monoxide or nicotine causes cancer, but they are probably working together as causes of heart disease associated with smoking.

It is easy to understand why the main cancers caused by smoking are at sites having direct contact with the smoke, specifically the lungs, mouth, and throat. However, some cancer-producing chemicals are absorbed into the blood and transported to other parts of the body. This is how smoking causes cancer of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, and uterus.

The way in which smoking causes heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases is quite complex.

* After absorption through the lungs, carbon monoxide combines with hemoglobin in the red blood cells and reduces the amount of oxygen they can carry around the body.
* Carbon monoxide and nicotine both appear to play a part in accelerating the deposition of cholesterol in the inner lining of arteries which over many years leads to arteriosclerosis, a kind of hardening and furring up of arteries which reduces blood flow.
* Cigarette smoking also makes the blood clot more easily, making episodes of thrombosis more likely.
* Impairment of blood flow, and of oxygen-carrying capacity due to carbon monoxide, all reduce the supply of oxygen. This happens at the same time that the heart's need for oxygen is increased by the stimulant effect of nicotine on the rate and force of the heart's contractions.
* The lack of oxygen is damaging to the heart and increases the severity of a heart attack.
* Nicotine can cause further problems by upsetting the regular rhythm of the heart.

Nicotine and carbon monoxide are also important factors in peripheral vascular disease, which can lead to gangrene of the feet. Nicotine causes constriction, or narrowing, of the small blood vessels. This, combined with carbon monoxide's oxygen-reducing effect, tips the balance in people with narrowed leg arteries.

Likewise, nicotine constriction of blood vessels in the placenta (which provides nourishment to an unborn baby), combined with the effects of carbon monoxide, reduces oxygen supply to the unborn babies of pregnant women who smoke.

In these various ways both nicotine and carbon monoxide are involved in the effects of smoking on coronary heart disease, other vascular diseases, and on the development of the unborn child. Although stopping smoking may not reverse arteriosclerosis, a disease in which plaque builds up in the arteries, it will progress less quickly.

Low Tar Cigarettes Safer During Pregnancy?

Are low tar cigarettes safer during pregnancy?

Pregnant smokers who switch to light cigarettes aren't doing themselves - or their babies - any favours. The labels on light cigarettes may say "low nicotine" or "low tar," but the claims are meaningless. All cigarettes have roughly the same amount of nicotine and tar. Cigarette companies have simply changed the design of some cigarettes so they produce fewer toxins when tested by machines in government laboratories. For instance, manufacturers put tiny vents in the filters so that the machines suck in fresh air as well as cigarette smoke. But when so-called low-nicotine or low-tar cigarettes are smoked by people instead of machines, any differences pretty much disappear.

When people smoke light cigarettes, they instantly adjust their smoking technique. Without even thinking about it, they puff more quickly and breathe more deeply. Many smokers also inadvertently cover the vents in the filters with their fingers, essentially turning their light cigarettes back into regular cigarettes. In the end, they get their full dose of nicotine, along with carbon monoxide, tar, and all of the other poisons that can harm a woman's health and threaten her pregnancy.

If you're worried about the dangers of regular cigarettes, switching to light or low tar cigarettes isn't the answer. You need to give up, and the sooner the better. The only safe cigarettes are the ones that don't get smoked.

Info from this source.

Tar Effects Teeth

Article about how tar can effect teeth.

Anyone that knows a smoker is aware of the affects cigarettes have on a personal teeth. The real culprit here is tar. Tar, when combined with nicotine stains the teeth yellow or brown. Cigarettes also give people chronic bad breath. All of this is obvious. There are, however, more serious effects from tar on dental health.
Periodontal disease is one possible effect that poses the most serious risks. The disease destroys the soft tissue and bone that attaches the jawbones because of bacterial infection. The outcome of the disease is loss of teeth after they loosen and eventually fall out. The early stages show bleeding gums and the pulling back of the gun from the teeth. It also causes the roof of the mouth to become swollen and inflamed. Effects of smoking the cigarettes are most known effects of the smoking, because the cigarettes are most famous type of tobacco, as well as partly because of horrifying diseases, which will result.
Any infection in the gums takes longer to heal in a smoker because the chemicals in cigarette smoke cause the weakening of the immune system. This could be especially dangerous is the infection spreads. Dental infections are among the most dangerous infections due to the close proximity to the brain. A smoker is far more prone to infections such as these than a non-smoker.
Smokers are also six times more likely to develop gum disease than a non-smoker. When gum disease is present, the gums become red and inflamed. The foundation of the teeth is also weakened in smokers, which also heightens the chances of tooth loss. Because the cigar smokers do not inhale smoke, and they are not in the danger of any cancer or heart disease, which affects the smokers of cigarettes. Effects of smoking the cigars are strongly felt in mouth & throat. Effects of smoking the cigars are not as newsworthy like those of the cigarettes, however they are not any nicer as well.
Smoking also effects the production of saliva, which also causes tooth discoloration. Saliva also cleanses teeth and the lining of the mouth and helps protect teeth against decay so when there is a problem with the production of saliva – like the problem caused by smoking for example – it means problems for the whole mouth.
Smoking also caused bacteria to get caught in plaque on teeth, which is another reason a smoker’s gums may become inflamed. This bacterium also causes problems for the jaw, which once again, may lead to tooth loss. Wonders of the modern technology also have allowed for the mechanical replacements, thus at least the smokers are now no longer have to mute for rest of lives. Unluckily, these mechanical replacements generally tend to sound as if a kids robot toy with laryngitis. Obviously, there is much more to these effects of the smoking, as well as others besides, than will easily get included here. Take time to learn yourself beyond this media blurbs. You will be happy that you did.

Smoking less won’t reduce cancer risk

Above about tar cigarettes.

The notion of tobacco harm reduction—that there may be a "safer" way to smoke—is one that holds great appeal for smokers unwilling or unable to kick the habit and for the tobacco companies that profit from it. But two recent studies add weight to the argument that quitting is still the only certain way to reduce the health risks of tobacco.

The first, published in BMJ (2004;328:72–80), compared lung cancer risk among smokers of high-tar, regular-tar, and reduced-tar cigarettes. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the ACS found that low-tar and very low-tar cigarettes were no less harmful than those with regular or medium-tar levels.

"The data underscore that terms like ‘light’ and ‘ultra light’ are misleading because they imply less health risk but do not correspond to less hazardous cigarettes," said coauthor Michael J. Thun, MD, MS, Vice President of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research at ACS.

Nearly 1 million men and women (nonsmokers, former cigarette smokers, and current cigarette smokers) participating in the ACS Cancer Prevention Study II were analyzed. The tar rating of the brand of cigarette smoked in 1982 was compared with mortality from cancer of the lung, trachea, or bronchus over the next six years. Cigarettes were categorized as "very low tar" (0 to 7 mg tar per cigarette), "low tar" (8 to 14 mg tar per cigarette), "medium tar" (15 to 21 mg tar per cigarette), or "high tar" (22 mg or more per cigarette). The statistical analyses controlled for factors including age, race, education, marital status, diet, occupation (including asbestos exposure), and cardiovascular or respiratory comorbidities.

As expected, people who never smoked had virtually no risk of lung cancer. Those who smoked high-tar brands (which typically are unfiltered) had the highest risk; compared with current smokers of medium-tar cigarettes, their hazard ratios were 1.44 for men and 1.64 for women.

But lung cancer risk among people who smoked low-tar or very low-tar cigarettes was indistinguishable from that of smokers of medium-tar brands. Hazard ratios were 1.17 and 1.02 among men smoking very low-tar and low-tar brands, respectively, and 0.98 and 0.95, respectively, among women. None of these values were significantly different from the hazard ratio for smokers of medium-tar brands (set at 1.0 for this statistical analysis).

The way people smoke is the likeliest explanation for the findings, Thun said. The tar and nicotine content listed on cigarette labels is based on measurements from a smoking machine, but studies have shown "there’s a very poor correlation between machine-measured yield and what people are actually taking in," he explained.

People who smoke reduced-tar cigarettes don’t necessarily lower the amount of chemicals they inhale because they tend to inhale deeper, hold the smoke longer, and puff more often than smokers of regular-tar brands. They also tend to smoke more and may, inadvertently or not, cover ventilation holes in the cigarette filter that are designed to dilute the smoke with air.

Compensation in smoking behavior is also the most likely explanation for the findings of a second study examining the effect of smoking fewer cigarettes on the level of carcinogens in the body. Researchers from the University of Minnesota Cancer Center Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2004;96:107–115) that smoking fewer cigarettes did not result in a proportional reduction in metabolites of the carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK).

"The reduction was just not as great as you would have expected based on how much [the study participants] had cut back," said lead researcher Stephen Hecht, PhD.

Hecht and colleagues enrolled more than 150 people who smoked, on average, 23.7 cigarettes a day. The study involved gradual cigarette reduction using nicotine replacement therapy and brief counseling sessions. At each stage of the program, urinary levels of the NNK metabolites 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) and NNAL glucuronides (NNAL-Gluc) were measured. The reductions in these biomarkers did not keep pace with the reductions in cigarettes.

Cutting cigarette consumption by 53% led to a reduction of only 29% in NNAL and NNAL-Gluc. Cutting cigarettes by 75% caused only a 37% drop in the chemicals. Even people who cut back to just 2.6 cigarettes a day, a reduction of 90%, lowered their levels of NNAL and NNAL-Gluc by only 46%.

Although these reductions in carcinogens were statistically significant, for most smokers the effect was modest and transient, Hecht said. As the study went on, NNAL and NNAL-Gluc increased again in many participants, even though they were still smoking fewer cigarettes. Compensatory smoking is probably the reason.

Thun and Hecht said their findings support the notion that giving up cigarettes entirely is the best bet for reducing the health risks caused by tobacco. In the first study, quitting reduced lung cancer risk substantially; people who gave up smoking before age 35 had almost the same lung cancer risk as nonsmokers, but even those who quit after age 55 saw a substantial reduction. Hecht has done previous research showing that levels of NNAL and NNAL-Gluc gradually decrease and eventually become undetectable in people who quit smoking.

Moreover, no product or strategy designed to reduce the harm from smoking has yet been shown to work, Hecht said

"I still think cessation is the way to go, clearly," he said. "We don’t have conclusive evidence that anything else works."

Smoking can cause cancer

Above about hazard of smoking.

Smoking is the cause of several kinds of cancer. This includes lung, mouth, throat, stomach, bladder and colon cancer.

Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer that exists in smokers. Research had shows that approximately 1 in 4 smokers will contracted with lung cancer. The tobacco smoke is made up from various dangerous chemical substances.

There is over 60 of these substances that cause cancer. The chemical that causes cancer are found in the tobacco tar. When a smoker take in the cigarette smoke, 70% of the tar will stays in the lung of the smoker .

A carcinogen called Benzpyrene which is found in the cigarette smoke damage the genes in your body and can cause cancerous growth. The chemicals and toxins that is derived from the smoke of the cigarettes encourages the lung tissues to develop cancerous cells.

There are two types of tumors which are benign or malignant tumor. Benign tumors are not dangerous unless they are very large.

Benign tumors grow slowly over time and do not spread to other tissues in the body. Malignant tumors are the type of tumors that are cancerous. It can spread to other parts of the body.

Malignant tumors can cause death by reproducing erratically and destroying the surrounding tissues and spreading to other organs in the body.

There are two kinds of lung cancer which are on-small lung cancers and small cell lung cancers. Small cell lung cancer is the most aggressive type of lung cancer related to smoking.

Symptoms of lung cancer includes constant coughing, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, chest pains, massive weight loss , appetite loss, bronchitis, and pneumonia and swelling the neck and face.

Stop smoking now and live a healthy lifestyle. It is very important that a recovering patient never smoke again as this can trigger the growth of cancer cells.

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Effect of tar cigarettes.

Here are the effect of smoking.

Smokers are more than 5 times as likely as nonsmokers to develop abdominal aortic aneurysms. (Reuters March 2004)

Nicotine can trigger palpitations. (Longevity, May 1991)

Among people over 65, smokers have four to eight times the risk of an aneurysm than the average person’s risk: those with high blood pressure have double the risk. (“Deceptive Pain,” Discover magazine, Jan. 2001)

Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke both significantly hasten hardening of the arteries, and the damage may be permanent, says a study at Wake Forest University. (“Smoking linked to hardening of the arteries,” AP, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, Jan. 14, 1998)

Smoking may account for a 50% increase in the development of arteriosclerosis (the buildup of plaque along arterial walls) for current smokers, and 25% for past smokers. (Delicious! magazine, May 1998)

In the winter, smokers may be at an increased risk of heart disease due to higher blood pressure and heart rate, say researchers in Israel. Although winter blood pressure readings are typically higher for most people, in smokers the average increase in systolic blood pressure was twice the increase in non-smokers. (“Cold Weather Raises Heart Risk for Smokers,” heartinfo.org - June 2001)

Smoking damages the arteries to the heart and brain, thereby increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. ( British Medical Journal 1996, in Health Gazette newsletter, Feb. 1997)

Cigarette smoking harms the body by raising cholesterol levels and blood pressure. (“Addictive Substances: Nicotine,” Let’s Live magazine, Oct. 1996)

One cigarette can impair circulation for up to 45 minutes by constricting the small blood vessels. (The narrow vessels in the feet are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects). (Hara Podiatrist Group, Covina, Ca., Prevention magazine, Dec. 1987)

Tar in cigarettes harmful the smoker

Here's about tar in cigarettes.

Millions of Americans smoke "low-tar," "mild," or "light" cigarettes, believing those cigarettes to be less harmful than other cigarettes. In a new monograph from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) titled Risks Associated with Smoking Cigarettes with Low Machine-Measured Yields of Tar and Nicotine*, national scientific experts conclude that evidence does not indicate a benefit to public health from changes in cigarette design and manufacturing over the last 50 years.

"This report was made possible by the work and cooperation of scientists throughout the country," said Scott Leischow, Ph.D., chief of the NCI Tobacco Control Research Branch. "The monograph clearly demonstrates that people who switch to low-tar or light cigarettes from regular cigarettes are likely to inhale the same amount of cancer-causing toxins and they remain at high risk for developing smoking-related cancers and other diseases." This monograph is the 13^th volume in NCI's Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph Series, which began in 1991.

Public Health Effects

Epidemiologic studies (studies that examine the relationship of risk factors to health and disease) in the late 1960s and 1970s found that smokers of lower-tar or filtered cigarettes had somewhat lower lung cancer risks than smokers of other cigarettes. This finding was particularly noteworthy because smokers in these studies had been smoking the reduced-yield cigarettes for only a relatively short period of time. It was predicted that as more smokers used lower yield products for longer periods of time, a greater benefit would occur and national lung cancer death rates would fall.

Unfortunately, these reductions have not been seen. Even as the popularity of lower- yield cigarettes grew - 97 percent of the cigarettes now sold in the United States are filtered cigarettes - lung cancer rates continued to rise until the early 1990s. The monograph demonstrates that the overall decline that has been seen since the 1990s can be attributed to the decrease in smoking prevalence, and not to changes in cigarette design.

The new monograph reviews published literature on death rates in the U.S. and the United Kingdom which also demonstrated an increase - rather than a decrease - in smoking risks over a period when machine-measured yields of tar and nicotine were declining. Two studies conducted by the American Cancer Society more than 20 years apart found that, despite the large reduction in machine-measured tar yield over this period, smokers in the later study had an increased risk of lung cancer. This increase was seen even when differences in the number of cigarettes smoked per day and duration of smoking were factored into the analysis. The monograph clearly demonstrates that the expected reduction in lung cancer risk offered by the early epidemiologic studies has not been seen in national lung cancer death rate trends.

Surveys have indicated that among the estimated 47 million adults who smoke in the United States, people who are most concerned about smoking risks or are most interested in quitting use brands labeled "light" or "ultra-light." Unfortunately, the monograph finds that choosing lower-yield cigarettes is not likely to reduce tar intake and resulting disease risks. Furthermore, marketing and promotion of reduced yield products may delay genuine attempts to quit. There is no evidence that switching to light or ultra-light cigarettes actually assists smokers in quitting.

According to David M. Burns, M.D., senior scientific editor of the monograph and a professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, "The take-home message of this report is that the only proven way to reduce the disease risks associated with smoking is to quit."

New Testing Method Needed

Currently, measurements of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide are obtained by machine measurement using the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) testing method. However, studies now show that the FTC method does not appropriately mimic human smoking behavior. The monograph concludes that: "Measurements of tar and nicotine yields using the FTC method do not offer smokers meaningful information on the amount of tar and nicotine they will receive from a cigarette. The measurements also do not offer meaningful information on the relative amounts of tar and nicotine exposure likely to be received from smoking different brands of cigarettes."

According to Leischow, "There is an urgent need to develop new approaches to testing that offer meaningful information. Smokers should not believe that the tar and nicotine levels listed on a pack of cigarettes are what they are actually inhaling."

The FTC has asked the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for guidance to improve its testing method for tar and nicotine. NCI and other DHHS agencies will convene a working group to review and synthesize the science on this issue and to determine what changes should be made to the testing method to correct the limitations identified in the monograph.

Smokers Compensate

The monograph describes several reasons why the levels of tar and nicotine measured by the FTC method do not reflect actual tar and nicotine delivery to the smoker. The filters in low-tar/low-nicotine cigarettes often include vent holes which, when open, allow air to enter and dilute the smoke. However, many smokers cover these holes with their lips and fingers. In contrast, when tested by a machine, the holes are unobstructed, and artificially low measurements of tar and nicotine are obtained. In addition, smokers who switch to low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes from regular cigarettes "compensate" for the lower nicotine level by inhaling more deeply; taking larger, more rapid, or more frequent puffs; or by increasing the number of cigarettes smoked per day. As a result, smokers cancel out any potential benefit of smoking a "low-tar" cigarette.

The monograph describes the advertising and promotional strategies used by the tobacco industry to market lower-yield cigarettes. It concludes that these strategies were intended to reassure smokers and to prevent them from quitting, and that they led consumers to perceive filtered and low-tar products as safer alternatives to regular cigarettes. The monograph also cites internal tobacco industry documents that demonstrate the industry's early knowledge of the discrepancy between the FTC machine-measured yields of tar and nicotine and what the smoker actually inhales.

Future Research

The authors note that continued research, as well as tracking of the diseases caused by smoking, is necessary to determine the disease risks associated with recently introduced "reduced exposure" cigarettes or cigarette-like products. Further study on the health risks of individuals who have smoked only "low-yield," "ultra-low-yield," and "low-carcinogen" cigarettes is also needed.