What’s in a cigarette?
Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of over 7000 chemicals. Many of these chemicals come from burning tobacco; the remainder come from burning cigarette paper, agricultural chemicals left on the tobacco leaves, and chemicals added during the cigarette making process.
Once inhaled into the lungs, many of these chemicals pass through the lung walls into the blood stream, and are pumped around the body.
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Types of tobacco products
While manufactured cigarettes are the most popular form of tobacco, other tobacco products include cigars, pipe tobacco, bidis, kreteks or clove cigarettes, roll-your own tobacco, waterpipes and smokeless tobacco. These products also cause smoking related disease, although some risks may differ from cigarettes. Other substances that are smoked include herbal cigarettes and cannabis.
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Herbal cigarettes, kretaks, bidis, roll-your-own, waterpipes & cannabis
Cigars and pipes
Waterpipe tobacco smoking
Smokeless tobacco
Weaker tasting cigarettes
Weaker tasting cigarettes, often labelled ‘smooth’ or ‘fine’ cigarettes, are not less dangerous than regular cigarettes. There is no evidence that smokers of 'smooth' or ‘fine' cigarettes have less risk of smoking caused diseases than smokers of other cigarettes.
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Secondhand smoke
Secondhand smoke (SHS) consists mainly of smoke released from the burning end of a cigarette, and also of smoke breathed out by the smoker. Secondhand smoke is also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Breathing in secondhand smoke is also referred to as passive smoking or involuntary smoking. Secondhand smoke is diluted by being mixed with air, so people breathing it in inhale less smoke than active smokers. While this means active smoking is more dangerous to health than breathing in secondhand smoke, secondhand smoke still causes many diseases and symptoms of illness.
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