ELi5: Why do cigarettes have so many toxic substances in them? Surely you don’t need rat poison to get high?

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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

15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Cigarettes are no doubt bad for your health, but a lot of the “toxins” message is just from misleading anti-smoking campaigns. Many “toxic substances” are always found in low levels in plants, fruits, and vegetables; some are natural according to, and some come from the pesticides used. Some of the toxins in cigarettes are from the additives they use to preserve the tobacco.

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