20 Disturbing Facts About Smoking Cigarettes

Smoking used to be something people did to look cool. Teens are still getting dragged into smoking for that same reason. Nowadays it is considered a nasty habit by the majority of people. Smoking is known to being a cause of lung cancer and other diseases. The health risks for the smokers and the people surrounding are negative, mostly for the secondhand smokers. The facts about smoking cigarettes made governments all over the world put stricter rules for smoking in public areas and closed spaces. People used to smoke in movies, but today it’s not even allowed to advertise smoking in any way. Here below are some disturbing facts about smoking cigarettes.

1.1 billion of the 7.2 billion world population is a smoker. This number is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by the year 2025 if the current trends continue.

A single cigarette contains over 4,800 chemicals, of which 69 are carcinogenic. Secondhand smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, including 70 cancer-causing chemicals.

The Massachusetts Health Department revealed that the amount of nicotine in cigarettes has risen by more than 20% over the past 10 years. This causes people to become more addictive.

Cigarettes contain a small amount of radioactive materials, particularly lead-210 and polonium-210. Smoking 2 packs a day gives the same radiation as having an x ray.

Tobacco manufacturers add sugar and sweeteners to the cigarettes, which according to scientists increase the smokers’ risk of cancer.

There is enough nicotine in three or four cigarettes to kill an average adult if all the nicotine is ingested. However, most smokers only ingest only one or two milligrams of nicotine per cigarette.

It is not legal to smoke tobacco products at any age. The sale of tobacco however is regulated with legal legislation.

Each day, 1,000 teens become a new daily cigarette smoker and every day over 3,800 teens, 18 and younger, smoke their first cigarette.

In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In infants, it causes sudden death. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight.

Nearly 80% of the world’s one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.