Trooper,
I haven't been at the center in awhile.....but I saw your post. Read this and tell me if you still feel like having a cigarette.
Are you aware of ......what exactly is in a cigarette? What goes into your body when you smoke the thing?
Well, the three biggies are –
Nicotine – a fast-acting drug that creates one of the most powerful addictions known. Its natural function in the tobacco plant is to kill insects. It works very well. That’s why it’s used as a cockroach poison.
Carbon monoxide – a poisonous gas that replaces the oxygen in the blood. The higher
the concentration, the quicker you die. Also known as SHWO – Sad Housewives’ Way Out – because in the old days town gas contained quite a lot of carbon monoxide. You can imagine the rest.
Tar – that black sticky stuff on the roads. Definitely not designed to live in a human body. But if it is inside you,
it will hurt you. And hurt you bad.
The tar itself is a disgusting mixture of things you should know about –
Acetone – also used as paint stripper and as nail varnish remover. You know the smell.
Ammonia – In cigarettes, ammonia compounds speed the delivery of nicotine to your brain. They also distort the tar measurement of cigarettes, giving artificially low readings. “Lite” ain’t so lite.
Arsenic – Yes, really.
Butane – Cigarette lighter fuel.
Cadmium – as used in car batteries. A poison so deadly, and which biodegrades so slowly, that it is a particular hazard to the environment. Cool! You’re still a threat after you’re dead!
DDT – another mass murderer of insects. Why do you want this in you?
Formaldehyde – Used for preserving dead bodies. Which is rather ironic, don’t you think?
Hydrazine – Rocket fuel, would you believe?
Hydrogen cyanide – Now we’re really getting down to business. Used in gas chambers. Tell us before you go. What terrible crime did you commit to deserve this cruel and unusual punishment?
Methanol – more rocket fuel!
Phenol – Gotta love this one. It’s used for disinfecting toilet bowls. Say no more.
Propylene glycol – anti-freeze
Toluene – “an industrial solvent”. That means it dissolves things. Including you.
Vinyl chloride – Plastic. No comment.
Other things are there to ‘taste nice’. For example, coffee extract, sugar, vanilla, cocoa, menthol, oil from clove stems, caramel and chlorophyll.
By the way, when cocoa burns, it produces bromine, another charmer. Bromine is an agent that dilates the airways. Wider airways, more smoke every puff. More smoke, more nicotine.
Menthol is not there for the taste, either. It numbs the throat. So you can inhale better.
What else is in tar? Radioactive polonium and lead, that’s what. To be precise, lead 210 and polonium 210.
Polonium 210 was famously used not so long ago by the KGB – the Russian secret police – to kill a dissident in London. It worked.
So, ask yourself. Why am I inhaling radioactivity? What’s in it for me? What’s in it for my family?
There’s a couple more things you need to know.
First, the tobacco companies are into genetic engineering. The idea is to create tobacco plants with much more nicotine.
Do you want a list of the over 500 things that THEY ADD TO CIGARETTES ON PURPOSE? I'll send it to you if you like!!
Hope this helps
Mercy
My Milage:My Quit Date: 1/21/2007
Smoke-Free Days: 482
Cigarettes Not Smoked: 9,640
Amount Saved: $2,723.30
Life Gained:Days: 63
Hrs: 21
Mins: 18
Seconds: 40
...POW...right in the kisser!!!!!! Keep movin' forward, Trooper, your stats are awesome.
