Image source The Accidental Expert
If you’ve been following me on twitter you may already know that i have been working, on a temporary basis, for a company that engineers industrial sized machines. Today i was having a general conversation with a guy, in between me painting the mezzanine hand rails, when i asked him what these gigantic contraptions were. In response he said, “…these things, erm, they’re for making cigarettes, this one’s going to Belgium and a bunch of our guys are over in America installing one.” I replied something along the lines of “Are they? They’re huge.” I won’t carry with a novel style transcript of the conversation but i will outline the main details:
- Machine costs over £1,000,000
- Each tobacco company makes their money back within 6 months from cigarette sales
- You wouldn’t believe the chemicals that we put into these machines
All three of these points in the conversation struck a chord with me, most significant of all was the final point. When i heard this i thought to myself what actually is in a cigarette and do smokers know? This post will clear up all the ambiguity.
Why smoke?
Smoking causes many health related issues, most notably; lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and bronchitis. Tobacco use also causes cancer of the throat, mouth, pancreas, bladder, stomach, liver, and kidney. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) tobacco is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world. Approximately 1.3 million deaths worldwide per year as a result of lung cancer.
Other health related issues that are not as widely known are:
- stained teeth, bad breath, gum disease and loss of taste
- poor circulation therefore decreased fitness, cold skin, narrowed veins and arteries, gangrene and cramps
- reduced oxygen to skin causing premature skin ageing
- decreased bone density
- decreased fertility
source gosmokefree.nhs.uk
Image source Wikipedia
The ingredients
- Acetone - Nail polish remover
- Ammonia - Toilet cleaner
- Arsenic - Rat poison
- Benzo(a)pyrene - Diesel exhaust fumes
- Carbon Monoxide - Petrol exhaust fumes
- DDT and Dieldrin - Insecticides
- Formaldehyde - Preservative for dead bodies
- Hydrogen Cyanide - Poison used in gas chambers
- Methanol - Rocket fuel
- Titanium - Metal used to make aeroplanes
A single cigarette contains more than 4000 toxic chemicals. Research has shown that at least 50 are capable of causing cancer. When i look at the list i think of a garden shed or a garage shelf with all the bottles of chemicals that daddy said not touch because “they’re dangerous”. So why then do people disregard this and decide that i won’t touch them but i’ll roll them all up in a piece of paper and smoke them? Maybe, there is a general ignorance amongst smokers to find out the complete list of ingredients because they know it can only be bad. Maybe tobacco firms are shirking their responsibilities by not displaying the ingredients on packages? Maybe smokers simply don’t care? Maybe…..a whole host of reasons exist?
You may have guessed that i’m not a smoker. I grew up in a household that was occupied by stagnant second hand smoke every hour of the day a disgusting environment for anyone to be in, even worse when you’re a child and have no option but to put up with it. Being forced to eat, sleep and drink in putrid and pungent haze of smoke soon instilled the opinion in me that i should never take up smoking no matter how cool it was hyped up to be. I went through a period when i would not associate myself with people that smoked and was quite active in stamping it out among my friends at school. These days i don’t ostracise people so readily but i am forever thankful that the UK is a smoke free country so that my friends and i can go to any public place and not enter into a cloud of smoke, choke as we talk, and then go home stinking like an ash tray.
On that note, i’m glad to say that my time with the company comes to end tomorrow (Friday) and the job that i’m waiting for (ambulance care assistant) becomes ever closer.
What are you opinions on the listed ingredients? Did you know about them? What can be done to inform people so they can make the right choice and kick the habit? I would really like to hear your thoughts on this and so would others i’m sure.
For advice on going smoke free and what to expect when giving up click here
One Comment
I am a smoker. I try not to think about the bad things contained in cigarettes. But even if it creeps up on me (”This is bad for me”), I am in so much denial about its bad effects on my health. “I can quit later” is my favorite denial tactic.
I’ve tried quitting and was smoke free for a month, and then when bad things happened I used it as an excuse to smoke again. When I had quit I was beginning to go through the anti-smoker revolution that accompanies real change: realizing how much other smokers stank, trying to exercise more, taking up new hobbies.
But as I’ve said, that didn’t last for me.
I have realized that smoking is like being an alcoholic– it is addicting, you plan your whole day around when you’re going to smoke (need enough time before work to smoke, need a seven minute break to smoke, need a cigarette after dinner, etc.) you can’t have just one, your first thought to smoke is wrong, you need co-dependents (other smokers to keep you company), it ruins your health and the lives of others around you.
I have planned a quit date for next Thursday. Part of me is terrified, but I think I feel more confident in choosing to be smoke free because I am going through a lot of new changes–new living area, new job, and non-smoker friends. Changes in habit and non-smoking company are difficult choices to make, but probably the most crucial for success.