Not just rat poison, but so many of the ingredients just sound straight up unnecessary and also harmful. Why is there tar in cigarettes? Or arsenic? Formaldehyde? I get the tobacco and nicotine part but do you really need 1001 poisons in it???
EDIT: Thanks for answering! I was also curious on why cocaine needs cement powder and gasoline added in production. Snorting cement powder does not sound like a good idea. Then again, snorting cocaine is generally not considered a good idea… but still, why is there cement and gasoline in cocaine??
In: Biology
No one is *intentionally* putting arsenic into cigarettes. But tobacco plants can absorb arsenic from the soil as they grow, much like rice, and the arsenic remains in the leaves as they are dried and ends up in the finished product. In its natural state it wouldn’t be a problem, but you’re consuming a relatively large amount of tobacco leaves since they’ve been dried and concentrated.
Tar is a confusing one, because the “tar” they are referring to is not the same as the “tar” you may be thinking of, its not the same stuff they put on roads and roofs. It’s just a generic term for the sticky residue left by sooty tobacco smoke that results from incomplete combustion of the material.
Formaldehyde is also not an intentional additive. But it’s important to remember than burning is both a physical and a chemical reaction. The chemical we call formaldehyde just happens to be the resultant that forms when certain compounds burn. Lots of things create formaldehyde, it’s also present in your cars exhaust. We just don’t usually directly inhale it unless you’re smoking tobacco.
Outside of some things added to increase nicotine absorption and make them more addictive, there’s not really anything intentionally added to cigarettes to make them more toxic. The people who invented them just didn’t realize how bad it is for you to suck down unfiltered, particulate-laden smoke.
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