Tobacco products - the ingredients

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Crushed tobacco leaves are just one of the many ingredients that the tobacco industry uses to make their products. There are more than 600 different additives in cigarettes and the like, which primarily fulfill two tasks: They promote dependency and are intended to improve the taste of the smoldering sticks.

Nicotine content of cigarettes

The substance that smokers are most interested in tobacco is nicotine. The highly toxic alkaloid occurs naturally in tobacco plants. The salary varies from brand to brand.

However, the EU has defined limits for nicotine as well as tar and carbon monoxide, which manufacturers must adhere to:

• Nicotine: 1 mg per cigarette
• Tar: 10 mg per cigarette
• Carbon monoxide: 10 mg per cigarette

The decisive factor for the dose of nicotine in the body is not only the nicotine content, but also how much and how intensely you inhale the smoke. So how much nicotine a cigarette contains is less important than you might think.

For this reason, the designation "light" has now been banned for tobacco products. It has been found that smokers compensated for the lower nicotine content of such products by smoking more frequently and more intensively. In the end, they actually absorbed more nicotine and larger amounts of the many other pollutants in tobacco smoke.

Additives make it easier to get started with addiction

Certain substances are added to cigarettes to make it easier for young people and other newcomers to smokers to start a smoking career:

• Ammonia increases the effect of nicotine.
• Sweeteners improve the taste.
• Cocoa dilates the bronchi so that smokers can inhale the vapor more deeply.
• Menthol ensures that the smoke is more easily absorbed in the lungs.

Other problematic ingredients in cigarettes

Nobody denies that smoking causes cancer. The substances that are most dangerous to health arise during the combustion process - often from previously harmless raw materials such as sugar.

At temperatures between 500 and 950 ° C, more than 4,800 different substances are formed, which enter the lungs as gases or solid particles. Of these, 70 are highly toxic and either proven or possibly carcinogenic (carcinogenic).

The most important ingredients at a glance

The main toxins include:

Solid particles
tar	carcinogenic
Aromatic hydrocarbons	carcinogenic
nicotine	Addictive, neurotoxin
phenol	co-carcinogenic ** and irritant
ß-naphthylamine	carcinogenic
N-nitrosonic nicotine	carcinogenic
Benzopyrene (Benzolpyrene, Benzo (a) pyrene)	carcinogenic
Metals (nickel, arsenic, polonium)	carcinogenic
Indoles	Tumor accelerator
Carbazole	Tumor accelerator
Catechol	co-carcinogen
Gases
Carbon monoxide	blocks oxygen transport
Hydrocyanic acid compounds	cilientoxic * and irritating
acetaldehyde	cilientoxic and irritating
Acrolein	cilientoxic and irritating
ammonia	cilientoxic and irritating
formaldehyde	cilientoxic and irritating
Nitrogen oxides	cilientoxic and irritating
Nitrosamines	carcinogenic
Hydrazines	carcinogenic
Vinyl chloride	carcinogenic
* Toxic to cilia: damages the cilia in the lungs
** Co-carcinogen: A substance is not itself carcinogenic, but in certain combinations with other substances that are also not carcinogenic.
Source: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 15th Edition

Insight into the list of ingredients

In the case of cigarettes, the quantitative composition is a closely guarded secret of the tobacco companies. However, the Tobacco Product Ordinance obliges manufacturers to notify the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture at least about the type and effect of the additives used. These ingredient lists for each tobacco brand can be accessed online on the Ministry's website (www.bmel.de).

Dangerous passive smoking

A lit cigarette emits two types of smoke: Mainstream smoke is produced when you pull on the glowing stick; the sidestream smoke forms between the puffs. Both types of smoke contain the same ingredients, but in different concentrations.

Many toxins such as carbon monoxide, benzene, cadmium and lead are represented in much larger quantities in sidestream smoke. Since its particles are also much smaller than those of mainstream smoke, they penetrate more easily and deeply into the lungs, where they are deposited. Therefore, passive smoking is also particularly harmful to health. In a room where several people are smoking, almost 85 percent of the tobacco plumes are sidestream smoke.

Cigars, water pipes & Co

Cigarettes make up around 90 percent of all tobacco products. In addition, the narcotic drug nicotine is also consumed in the form of cigars, cigarillos, pipe, water pipe, chewing and snuff tobacco. Recently there have been devices in which tobacco is only heated but not burned.

Regardless of how the toxins get into the body and whatever is mixed in with the tobacco, there is no tobacco product that is not harmful to health.

This also applies to smokeless chewing and snuff tobacco. It contains more than 20 carcinogenic substances that enter the body through the mucous membranes. Long-term consumption can cause oral and pancreatic cancer.

E-cigarettes

E-cigarettes contain an electric nebulizer that is fitted with a cartridge. Inside there is a liquid, the so-called liquid, that evaporates. Liquids are available in nicotine-containing and nicotine-free variants and in a wide variety of flavors. No tobacco is burned in them - which is why consumption is presumably less harmful. However, no data are yet available on the long-term effects of consumption. The healthier option remains to do without e-cigarettes entirely.

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