Originally published February 5 2014
Surgeon General, scientists agree: Cigarettes are more addictive and deadly than ever before
by PF Louis
(NaturalNews) So the Surgeon General, with several supportive scientists, has publicly announced that cigarettes are worse than ever. But the attention was mostly on the nicotine content of tobacco throughout the bulk of the almost 1,000-page report. Although several studies and epidemiological reports confirm the obvious adverse health effects, there is little or no mention of what else in cigarettes harms health even more than nicotine.
The report refers to the cigarette industry's improvement with delivering nicotine into smokers' lungs, thus making cigarettes even more addictive. But what makes the nicotine "delivery system" even more potent are toxic chemicals, such as ammonia, which within themselves are even more toxic and carcinogenic than nicotine. The nicotine's mild stimulation or sedation, according to how much is inhaled in a short period, is addictive.
But there are many health experts who claim that the delivery system's 600 chemical additives are larger health issues than nicotine alone. An interestingly nasty cycle, nicotine addiction creates long-term customers, but the delivery system for it ruins smokers' health sooner than later and eventually kills them.
As the tobacco industry saying goes, "An addicted customer is a customer for life, no matter how short that life is."
The devils are in the details
The long held secrecy of exactly what those 599 additives have been was withheld by cigarette manufacturers invoking the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) enforced in 40 states and the District of Columbia. In order to protect profits, chemical ingredients don't have to be revealed if industry attorneys can convince investigative groups that they are needed for commercial purposes.
But after several direct and indirect efforts, the 599 have been isolated, with number 600 recently added. Number 600 is a chemical fire retardant, the type used for furniture and pajamas that release or "off-gas" toxins. The fire retardant is designed to kick in when one is not puffing, so falling asleep with a lit cigarette in hand will not create a fire. Instead, one poisons oneself more with every puff.
What about chemical reactions from the burning of those 600 chemical additives? It's estimated that the chemical reactions from burning those additives creates 4,000 gases or vapors. Many of which are toxic for smokers and nonsmokers in the immediate areas.
The heavy metal cadmium is one of those toxins that appear in cigarette smoke. Cadmium causes carcinogenic inflammation in the lungs and elsewhere. As a part of cigarette smoke, it affects smokers as well as nonsmokers.
Yes, there is a danger from secondhand cigarette smoke (http://www.naturalnews.com).
Here's another nail in the coffin for cigarette smokers. It comes from the tobacco leaf itself. It's radiation poisoning from polonium-210, which is contained in the fertilizers used in commercial tobacco growing.
Dr. Jerome Marmorstein found radioactive polonium in the lungs of smokers and in tobacco grown since 1950. Polonium's half-life is short, less than half a year. But most committed smokers smoke a pack or more a day. That's comparable to radiation from several chest X-rays daily.
Polonium levels tripled in American tobacco between 1938 and 1960. That and the increased number of chemicals to create better nicotine delivery systems account for the increase in lung cancers despite the decrease in smokers. For a list of some major cigarette ingredients, go here (http://www.lung.org).
So why does the cigarette industry even still exist? It's known about polonium-210 contamination for decades and, even after finding a way to eliminate it from tobacco leaves, has done nothing. And none of those 600 chemicals are listed on the product's packaging. Where's the FDA with all that?
This culture's values are upside down when public health and safety take a back seat to industry profits.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.nytimes.com
http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov
http://www.quitsmokingsupport.com
http://www.lung.org
http://www.acsa2000.net
http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
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