Chemicals+in+Cigarettes

Cigarettes are made from the tobacco plant which is a product obtained from Solanaceae (Jiloha, 2010). Tobacco contains an alkaloid a drug called nicotine (Jiloha, 2010). Nicotine is the chemical inside cigarettes that makes them addictive (CAMH, 2013). In cigarette smoke, there is a very small amount of nicotine, between one to two milligrams, (Canadian Lung Association, 2013) though nicotine at 60 milligrams is the lethal dose (Hart, Ksir, Hebb, Gilbert & Black, 2012). Cigars have two times the lethal amount of nicotine in them though, not all of the nicotine is delivered to the smoker and it is absorbed over a long enough time period not to be lethal to the smoker (Hart et al., 2012).

In a single cigarette there is over 8,000 chemicals (CAMH, 2013) and many o f those chemicals are carcinogenic. The chemicals contained within a cigarette include: (Canadian Lung Association, 2013).
 * Carbon Monoxide (found in car exhaust) [[image:http://www.e-ciglab.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/What-is-in-a-Cigarette-Chemicals.jpg width="337" height="215" align="right"]]
 * Arsenic (rat poison)
 * Ammonia (found in window cleaner)
 * Acetone (found in nail polish remover)
 * Hydrogen Cyanide (gas chamber poison)
 * Napthalene (found in mothballs)
 * Sulphur Compounds (found in matches)
 * Lead
 * Volatile Alcohol
 * Formaldehyde (used as embalming fluid)
 * Butane (lighter fluid)

The carbon monoxide in cigarettes is one of the most harmful parts about smoking (CAMH, 2013). This is due to the fact that the carbon monoxide in cigarettes replaces the oxygen in the blood stream and results in vital organs not receiving the nourishment that they need (CAMH, 2013).