No Buts About It - Cigarettes Are Killers!
We have a 16 year old patient who has smoked for three years. Dr. Michlin and I have been friends of her family for a long time. We are saddened that she is smoking. To help give her reasons to quit, I did a little research on the ingredients of cigarettes. We want to do whatever we can to persuade her to quit. Just as my parents unsuccessfully tried to do with me when I was smoking at her age. Ultimately, we know the decision must be hers. Breaking an addiction is a huge challenge, which can only be successful when someone really wants it. I know. I smoked for 23 years.
I smoked 10 - 25 cigarettes a day. I loved it. There was nothing more satisfying than having a smoke after a good meal, having a smoke while driving on a beautiful summer day, having a smoke sharing a glass of wine with a good friend, having a smoke while.you get the point. I was so addicted to cigarettes that I would stand outside on a blistering cold, Michigan winter day for a smoke break. Rain, snow, sleet, it did not matter. I was a puppet to the addiction.
I have now quit for over nine years. Some of my dearest friends did not think I would or could do it. I am here to say, if you want it badly enough, anything is possible. For a while, when I was first smoke-free, cigarettes were my first thought in the morning, my last thought at night, and every single thought drumming through my head in between. Of course that diminishes in time. I truly felt like I had lost one of my best friends.
The hold the addiction has on us is insurmountable! One simply needs to consider that no other drug is self-administered with the persistence, regularity and frequency of a cigarette. The addiction is so powerful that every now and then, I still dream about smoking. Even in the dream, I know I have quit; and I am sneaking a smoke. I wake up with a rush of relief knowing that I am not smoking again. I will not sneak a smoke in reality. I will not put that old familiar proverbial gun to my head again. I did not know that "best friend of mine" wore a mask of deception and trickery, seducing me into committing slow suicide.
The chemicals put into cigarettes are staggering. There are 599 additives approved by the US Government for us in the manufacture of cigarettes. Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette - 69 of those chemicals are known to cause cancer.
Here are a just a few of the chemicals added to cigarettes.
Sources:
http://nobutts.tamu.edu/facts/ingredients.htm
http://www.quit-smoking-central.com/cigarette-ingredients.html
http://www.quitsmokingsupport.com/whatsinit.htm
We have a 16 year old patient who has smoked for three years. Dr. Michlin and I have been friends of her family for a long time. We are saddened that she is smoking. To help give her reasons to quit, I did a little research on the ingredients of cigarettes. We want to do whatever we can to persuade her to quit. Just as my parents unsuccessfully tried to do with me when I was smoking at her age. Ultimately, we know the decision must be hers. Breaking an addiction is a huge challenge, which can only be successful when someone really wants it. I know. I smoked for 23 years.
I smoked 10 - 25 cigarettes a day. I loved it. There was nothing more satisfying than having a smoke after a good meal, having a smoke while driving on a beautiful summer day, having a smoke sharing a glass of wine with a good friend, having a smoke while.you get the point. I was so addicted to cigarettes that I would stand outside on a blistering cold, Michigan winter day for a smoke break. Rain, snow, sleet, it did not matter. I was a puppet to the addiction.
I have now quit for over nine years. Some of my dearest friends did not think I would or could do it. I am here to say, if you want it badly enough, anything is possible. For a while, when I was first smoke-free, cigarettes were my first thought in the morning, my last thought at night, and every single thought drumming through my head in between. Of course that diminishes in time. I truly felt like I had lost one of my best friends.
The hold the addiction has on us is insurmountable! One simply needs to consider that no other drug is self-administered with the persistence, regularity and frequency of a cigarette. The addiction is so powerful that every now and then, I still dream about smoking. Even in the dream, I know I have quit; and I am sneaking a smoke. I wake up with a rush of relief knowing that I am not smoking again. I will not sneak a smoke in reality. I will not put that old familiar proverbial gun to my head again. I did not know that "best friend of mine" wore a mask of deception and trickery, seducing me into committing slow suicide.
The chemicals put into cigarettes are staggering. There are 599 additives approved by the US Government for us in the manufacture of cigarettes. Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette - 69 of those chemicals are known to cause cancer.
Here are a just a few of the chemicals added to cigarettes.
- Cadmium found in batteries is extremely poisonous when found in cigarettes and results in kidney damage.
- Tar is an ingredient found in roads and tires as well as cigarettes. A two pack a day smoker inhales one gram of tar a day. That is a quart of thick, gooey tar inhaled a year.
- The burning of tobacco generates more than 150 billion tar particles per cubic inch, constituting the visible portion of cigarette smoke. According to chemists at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, cigarette smoke is 10,000 times more concentrated than the automobile pollution at rush hour on a freeway. The lungs of smokers, puffing a daily ration of 20 to 60 low to high tar cigarettes, collect an annual deposit of one-quarter to one and one-half pounds of the gooey black material, amounting to a total of 15 to 90 million pounds of carcinogen-packed tar for the aggregate of current American smokers.
- The burning of tobacco generates more than 150 billion tar particles per cubic inch, constituting the visible portion of cigarette smoke. According to chemists at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, cigarette smoke is 10,000 times more concentrated than the automobile pollution at rush hour on a freeway. The lungs of smokers, puffing a daily ration of 20 to 60 low to high tar cigarettes, collect an annual deposit of one-quarter to one and one-half pounds of the gooey black material, amounting to a total of 15 to 90 million pounds of carcinogen-packed tar for the aggregate of current American smokers.
- The toluene in glue and cigarettes is a toxic substance that produces euphoria and irritation of the air ways and lungs.
- Mothballs contain naphthalenes, also found in cigarettes. This proven poison causes reproductive and brain breakdown.
- The arsenic used to kill rats is also found in cigarettes. It causes irritated lungs, abnormal heart beat, and a score of other symptoms.
- Acetone is an ingredient found in nail polish remover as well as cigarettes. It is a harsh chemical which irritates your lungs and can lead to cancer.
- The toxic phenol found in plastics and cigarettes can cause kidney and liver damage and reduced blood pressure, resulting in severe sickness and possibly death.
- The ammonia in bleach speeds the delivery of nicotine to smokers and changes the reading of tar in cigarettes, making it seem lower. By adding ammonia to your cigarettes, nicotine in its vapor form can be absorbed through your lungs more quickly. This, in turn, means your brain can get a higher dose of nicotine with each puff.
If you are angry that so many things have been added to the cigarettes you enjoy so much, you should be. We hoping to make our patient angry and disguised by the additives! I cannot believe that cigarettes are still legal. Here is truly the kicker, many of these chemicals were added to make you better able to tolerate toxic amounts of cigarette smoke. They were added without regard to your health and with the intent to keep you addicted. As the tobacco industry saying goes,
Make sure that you have the last laugh. Regardless of the countless chemicals in your cigarettes, quitting is always your option! It is your life! Make it last!
"An addicted customer is a customer for life,
no matter how short that life is."
no matter how short that life is."
Make sure that you have the last laugh. Regardless of the countless chemicals in your cigarettes, quitting is always your option! It is your life! Make it last!
Sources:
http://nobutts.tamu.edu/facts/ingredients.htm
http://www.quit-smoking-central.com/cigarette-ingredients.html
http://www.quitsmokingsupport.com/whatsinit.htm