Damage - The Facts
Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals. As well as tar and nicotine, there is also the gas carbon monoxide (from in car exhaust fumes), ammonia (in floor cleaner) and arsenic (found in rat poison). At least 60 of the chemicals in tobacco smoke are known to cause cancer, including of the lung, throat, mouth, bladder and kidneys. Tobacco smoke also causes a number of other diseases.
Nicotine is the addictive drug in tobacco. Its mixture with carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, and narrows small blood vessels under your skin. It slows your blood flow, reducing oxygen to your feet and hands, this can result in some smokers end up having their limbs amputated.
Tar is made up of many chemicals, including gases and substances that cause cancer. It coats your lungs like soot in a chimney. Changing to low-tar cigarettes doesn't help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs.
Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body - especially your heart - work harder. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your lungs.
To find out more about Australian smoking statistics, the damage smoking does to your health and the dangers of passive smoking.
Cigarettes and Poisons
Cigarette smoke is a mixture of over 4000 chemicals, many of which are harmful to the human body. All currently available tobacco products that are smoked deliver substantial amounts of toxic chemicals to their users and those who breathe their smoke.
Recent Articles
Links to up to date articles explaining the damage smoking can cause to Women, Young People, the dangers of chop chop and the effects of passive and second hand smoke.
Effects - Graphic Health Warnings
Links to information on the effects of smoking.