9781422273913

You might be wondering how it’s possible for one object—a cigarette—to cause that many potential problems. One answer is that a cigarette is not really just one object. Cigarettes contain about 60 different ingredients, and when they are turned into smoke, some 7,000 different substances are produced. Nearly 70 of those substances are proven carcinogens. Here is a list of just a few components of cigarette smoke, along with their traditional industrial uses: • acetone (nail polish remover) • cadmium (battery acid) • methanol (rocket fuel) • tar (pavement) If you smoke, all these chemicals are going into your bloodstream, right along with the nicotine—which, by the way, can also be used as an insecticide. Buy Now, Pay Later Given all the toxins in cigarette smoke, it might be hard to understand why anybody would choose to smoke in the first place. One factor is that the benefit of smoking (meaning the stimulant effect) is felt immediately, while the consequences only become apparent in the future. The decision to use a drug or not often boils down to “I could feel good right now, or I could postpone feeling good so that I feel good many years from now.” When phrased like that, it’s a little easier to understand how people get tricked into smoking. Humans as a species are not great at reckoning with situations where • arsenic (rat poison) • butane (lighter fluid)

Teen Guides to Health & Wellness: Smoking and Vaping

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