Cigarettes are Poisonous.

The only ones who are really bad are the corporation executives in their yachts, laughing at you while you get cancer, and make them rich.

Dimethylnitrosamine

Ethylmethylnitrosamine

Nitrosopyrrolidine

Hydrazine

Vinyl Chloride

Urethane

Formaldehyde

Other Toxic Agents:

Carbon Monoxide

Hydrogen Cyanide

Acrolein

Acetadehyde

Nitrogen oxides

Ammonia

Pyridine

Nitric acid

Mathylamine

Hydrogen cyanide

Indole

3-hydroxypyridine

3-vinylpyridine

Acetone

Acetonitrile

Acrolein

1,3-Butadiene, mg

Nitrous acid

isoquioline

Isoamylamine

3-Cyanopyridine

This is only a partial list. They put these chemicals in cigarettes to reduce tar while maintaining the level of nicotine necessary to keep them addictive. Keeping the tar down helps to calm people's fears about health risks. Since the companies are free of any supervision they are not compelled to reveal the chemicals they use. But recent breaks in the wall of secrecy have revealed that cigarettes are only about 40% tobacco, and 60% other junk.

(From: E. L. Wynder, M.D., and D. Hoffman, Ph.D., Tobacco and Health, The New England Journal of Medicine, April 19, 1979)

A new book by Richard Kluger called Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-year cigarette war, the public health, and the unabashed triumph of Philip Morris details dramatically how the cigarette industry consciously controls and strengthens the nicotine levels in cigarettes.

Kluger also shows that the industry knowingly focuses advertising on 10 to 16 year olds; knowing that that age group is the most easily hooked. He presents recent scientific evidence that adolescents are the most susceptible to nicotine.

He shows how their financial clout has bought them immunity from the laws binding the rest of society.

Secondhand Smoke

Smokers scorn nonsmokers' disgust for cigarette smoke, saying they're just "jumping on the bandwagon," or being PC, or being fussy wimps.

Here's the point: Cigarette fumes contain harmful chemicals.

That is why being trapped in cigarette smoke is not like being trapped in a portable toilet. It's not the smell, it's the instantaneous physical, somatic reactions. It's like the difference between the air in a barnyard and the air in an unventilated garage with an idling diesel bus. The first is merely unpleasant, the second is poisonous. The physical reaction (sweaty palms, nausea, headache) all warn of danger, and urge whoever to get into some fresh air immediately.

In days of old canaries were kept in coal mines, because if there was coal gas in the air, the canaries would die more quickly than the miners, alerting them to the danger. Coal gas and cigarette smoke are both unescapable when they permeate the local air.

And it didn't take government studies to come to this conclusion. Non-smokers have always sensed it, but had no corraborating evidence, until now. Here's the latest information from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (I hear you groaning, Rush)

Component (Known or probable carcinogens) Polonium-210 Benzo[a]pyrene Hydrazine 1,3 butadiene Benzene N-nitrosopyrrolidine Cadmium Nickel N-nitrosodimenthylamine Aniline 2-Naphthylamine 4-Aminobiphenyl N-nitrodiethylamine

How much more is in sidestream smoke 1 to 4 times 2.5 to 3.5 times 3 times 3 to 6 times 5 to 10 times 6 to 30 times 7.2 times 13 to 30 times 20 to 100 times 30 times 30 times 31 times up to 40 times

An R.J. Reynolds' advertisement recently attempted to minimize the sidestream smoke issue, showing low exposure numbers, but because they only counted nicotine. Nicotine is not carcinogenic (cancer causing), and smaller amounts are needed to satisfy customers who are already addicted. In the fine print, Reynold's states: "use of other compounds may give different results." They certainly do.

A New York research team reported in 1993 that it had measured the metabolic products of a tobacco carcinogen, NNK, in the urine of nonsmokers exposed to the conditions of a very smoky bar. The measurements were 10 times as high as those taken before the volunteers were exposed to smoke.

Smoking is so Glamorous

Cigarettes have engendered a culture of panhandlers and litterers. "Bumming a cigarette" is a new thing that began after WWII, when cigarettes first became ubiquitous. And it's obvious that smokers consider the world their personal ashtray, when you see butts everywhere on the ground where they gather.

Kids often say they take up smoking because they think it makes them look "mature" or older. Cigarettes don't just make a person look older, they make a person look old. Smokers age more quickly, and if you like the idea of looking 60 when you're 40, then smoke away. If you're 16, you'll be 40 before you know it, and if you smoke, you'll look 60 (if you're not dead from cigarette chemicals first...)

There's an old story about people in a lifeboat. One guy is bored, and starts cutting a hole in the bottom of the boat. The others object, but the guy says "Why are you worried, the hole is under my seat!" This is the just like the inconsiderate smoker who lights up in a room full of people who aren't smoking.

Dominator Culture