Something's smoking here
Lung cancer mainly causes the death of many Australians because of smoking. Cigarettes are usually made from tobacco and other lethal chemicals and I wonder why people are killing themselves without realising. But what does it actually contain? Daniel Yu investigates.
"My dad smokes almost every time and his relatives come and always join him. I loathe the smell of cigarettes and that inspired me to make this article. My dad rarely coughs out blood but when he does, I happen to be around," Daniel Yu comments.
There are nearly 600 chemicals in a tobacco cigarette and 69 of them are known to cause cancers. Some of the chemicals are quite unexpected like methanol (rocket fuel), methane (sewer gas), paint and ammonia (toilet cleaner). Tar, the stuff used for making roads, is also used in making cigarettes. Even worse, cigarette smoke has 4000 chemicals compounds including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrogen cyanide. Good luck listing them all.
So how did this all come to be? Blame the Americans. Tobacco was grown by the American Indians until Christopher Columbus reached the west Indies. The natives greeted them with tobacco and other fruits. Not knowing what they were, Christopher Columbus refused to take the tobacco. Two crewmen witnessed the first cigarettes as the natives wrapped the dried leaves in maize and lit it on one end. One of the crewman tried smoking himself and thought it was a nice habit. Soon, many people traded with the natives for tobacco. They chewed and smoked tobacco. It wasn't that popular until a business man called James Bonsack made a machine that could make cigarettes 120,000 times a day and with Washington Duke's son, they made an entire factory. In World War II, soldiers often smoke cigarettes along with their rations. Many companies benefited from this trend and earned a ludicrous amount of money. Adolf Hitler first publicly held an anti-smoking campaign in modern history. Such a good guy.
In the 1950s, there was more evidence that cigarettes caused lung cancer. To prevent going out of business, they denied such health hazards.
They found that the nicotine was highly addictive and took advantage of these unsuspecting people. In the 1964, the Surgeon General of U.S wrote a report of the dangers of tobacco cigarettes and enforced a law saying "Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health. By the 1980s, tobacco companies had a "Tar War" where they try and produce low tar cigarettes.
So now you know, the toxic thousands of chemicals that you see people smoking everyday comes from a single plant.
"My dad smokes almost every time and his relatives come and always join him. I loathe the smell of cigarettes and that inspired me to make this article. My dad rarely coughs out blood but when he does, I happen to be around," Daniel Yu comments.
There are nearly 600 chemicals in a tobacco cigarette and 69 of them are known to cause cancers. Some of the chemicals are quite unexpected like methanol (rocket fuel), methane (sewer gas), paint and ammonia (toilet cleaner). Tar, the stuff used for making roads, is also used in making cigarettes. Even worse, cigarette smoke has 4000 chemicals compounds including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrogen cyanide. Good luck listing them all.
So how did this all come to be? Blame the Americans. Tobacco was grown by the American Indians until Christopher Columbus reached the west Indies. The natives greeted them with tobacco and other fruits. Not knowing what they were, Christopher Columbus refused to take the tobacco. Two crewmen witnessed the first cigarettes as the natives wrapped the dried leaves in maize and lit it on one end. One of the crewman tried smoking himself and thought it was a nice habit. Soon, many people traded with the natives for tobacco. They chewed and smoked tobacco. It wasn't that popular until a business man called James Bonsack made a machine that could make cigarettes 120,000 times a day and with Washington Duke's son, they made an entire factory. In World War II, soldiers often smoke cigarettes along with their rations. Many companies benefited from this trend and earned a ludicrous amount of money. Adolf Hitler first publicly held an anti-smoking campaign in modern history. Such a good guy.
In the 1950s, there was more evidence that cigarettes caused lung cancer. To prevent going out of business, they denied such health hazards.
They found that the nicotine was highly addictive and took advantage of these unsuspecting people. In the 1964, the Surgeon General of U.S wrote a report of the dangers of tobacco cigarettes and enforced a law saying "Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health. By the 1980s, tobacco companies had a "Tar War" where they try and produce low tar cigarettes.
So now you know, the toxic thousands of chemicals that you see people smoking everyday comes from a single plant.