Tobacco

Tobacco is made up of more than 4,000 chemicals. Most of them are poisonous and at least 60 may cause cancer in humans! The list below shows several of the chemicals in tobacco. It also shows other items where you can find the chemicals. Would you want to put this into your body?

Acetylene- a fuel used in torches

Acetic Acid- gives vinegar its sour taste and smell

Aluminum- soda cans are made from this

Ammonia- can be found in toilet bowl cleaners and glass cleaners

Benzene- used to make rubber, plastic, detergents, and pesticides (bug poison)

Butane- fuel in cigarette lighters

Cadmium- also found in batteries

Cromium- also used to make jet engine parts

Carbon monoxide- deadly gas

Copper- found in algaecide to help kill the algae in our drinking water

Chrysene- forms when gasoline, garbage, or any animal or plant material burns

Cyanide- rat poison

DDT/Dierldrin- insecticide (bug poison)

Formaldehyde- this is what they inject into a dead body to preserve it from rotting

Hexamine- found in barbeque lighters

Lead- highly toxic metal

Limonene- used as a flavoring

Methanol- rocket fuel

Naphthalene- mothball chemical

Nicotine- causes addiction in tobacco products

Nitric oxide- a toxic air pollutant produced by automobile engines and power plants

Nitrobenzene- gasoline additive

Phenol- the active ingredient in some oral anesthetics (medicine that numbs your mouth)

Polonium 210- nuclear waste

Scopoletin- regulates the hormone serotonin (serotonin helps reduce anxiety and depression)

Stearic acid- in candle wax

Styrene- used in rubber, plastic, insulation, fiberglass, pipes, automobile parts, food containers, and carpet backing

Titanium- found in White Out and commonly used white paint

Vinyl chloride- component of PVC pipe

These are only a few of the 4,000+ chemicals in tobacco. You can go to this website for more chemicals: www.quitsmoking.about.com/cs/nicotineinhaler/a/cigingredients.htm

Cigarette smoking causes heart disease, stroke, chronic lung disease, and cancers of the lung, mouth, pharynx, esophagus, and bladder. Use of smokeless tobacco causes cancers of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus; gum recession; and an increased risk for health disease and stroke. Approximately 1,200 people die EVERY DAY from tobacco related illnesses. That means that 1,200 people A DAY got sick and died as a result of using tobacco products or being victims of secondhand smoke. That equals 50 deaths an hour or 438,000 deaths a year. Sounds silly when you know what they are putting into their bodies now doesn’t it? Tobacco users also spend about $1,600 a year on average on their tobacco products alone. Think of all of the other things they could buy with that money!

If cigarettes are so bad, why do people keep smoking them?

They are addictive. Addiction makes the body feel like it HAS TO HAVE it. Nicotine is the drug in all tobacco products that hooks its users. It is as powerful as some of the strongest illegal drugs like heroin or cocaine. If you smoke or use tobacco, get help to stop. The quitting process is difficult, but it is the only way to save your health. If you are tobacco-free, don’t ever change.

For help quitting or to help someone quit, the Tobacco Quitline is available. They provide support and encouragement when it is needed most. They also provide one month worth of free nicotine patches for the people who call. More information can be obtained by calling the Macoupin County Public Health Department at 217-854-3223 or the Tobacco Quitline at 1-866-QUIT-YES (1-866-784-8937).