• Question: is there 69 chemicals in a cigarette that can give you cancer?

    Asked by charlotte N-S to Alex, Ali, Kerry, Philip, Theo on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Alex Pool

      Alex Pool answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Great question –

      So the chemicals that can cause cancer:

      Tar – a mixture of dangerous chemicals
      Arsenic – used in wood preservatives
      Benzene – an industrial solvent, refined from crude oil
      Cadmium – used in batteries
      Formaldehyde – used in mortuaries and paint manufacturing
      Polonium-210 – a highly radioactive element
      Chromium – used to manufacture dye, paints and alloys
      1,3-Butadiene – used in rubber manufacturing
      Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – a group of dangerous DNA-damaging chemicals
      Tobacco-specific nitrosamines – a group of carcinogens only found in tobacco
      Acrolein – used as a chemical weapon in World War 1 – and acetaldehyde – used in the industrial production of acid

      Other chemicals in cigarette smoke that aren’t good for you:

      Nicotine – highly addictive
      Hydrogen cyanide – used as an industrial pesticide
      Carbon monoxide – found in car exhausts and used in chemicals manufacturing
      Nitrogen oxides – a major component of smog
      Ammonia – used to make fertilisers and explosives

    • Photo: Philip Ratcliffe

      Philip Ratcliffe answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Whether there are 69 or not I don’t know but there are a lot and I see that Alex has already listed more than I could’ve come up with.
      Anyway smoking is an amazingly dangerous practice and it’s entirely beyond me why anyone would want to do it.
      Like almost everyone else, I tried it when I was a kid and really couldn’t see the point.

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