Reactive Chemistry Blog

Forget the gruesome imagery on packets of cigarettes in the UK, the health campaigns, the nanny state warnings. There are seven simple reasons not to smoke cigarettes from a chemist’s perspective, each one is present at harmful levels in cigarette smoke:

Benzene – petrochemical solvent – toxic carcinogen

Formaldehyde – commonly known as embalming fluid – toxic carcinogen

Ammonia – poisonous gas commonly used lavatory cleaner and dry-cleaning agent

Acetone – toxic solvent used in nail polish remover

Carbon monoxide – lethal gas also present in car exhaust fumes

Arsenic – toxic metalloid used in rat poison

Hydrogen cyanide – toxic gas, it’s “cyanide“, right?

More on quitting smoking:

http://www.quit-smoking-stop.com/harmful-chemicals-in-cigarettes.html

http://healthliteracy.worlded.org/docs/tobacco/Unit4/1whats_in.html

http://www.tricountycessation.org/tobaccofacts/Cigarette-Ingredients.html