Cigarettes are full of poisons
Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals. As well as tar and nicotine, there is also the gas carbon monoxide (found in car exhaust fumes), ammonia (found 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. The mixture of nicotine and 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. 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.
Page currency, Latest update: 14 February, 2006