Cigarette chemicals have been blamed for countless deaths, mostly from cancer. Yet when looking at an ordinary cigarette, it appears to be little more than a few flecks of tobacco wrapped tightly with a piece of paper, the smoke of which is usually sucked in through a filter. Thus, at first glance it is hard to equate chemicals in cigarettes with the carcinogens which have been shown to be factors in the ailments that so many physicians have traced back to cigarette smoke.

Yet what goes on inside a cigarette happens on a chemical level and is not easily visible to the naked eye. Chemicals contained in a cigarette vary, but the most famous and infamous are acetaldehyde, cadmium, vinyl chloride and about 4000 chemicals cigarettes contain in varying quantities that have either not yet been quantifiably stated or are contained only as traces. Acetaldehyde is a bit of an anomaly among cigarette chemicals in that it is an organic composite which occurs naturally in some fruits and also coffee, and is actually used as an ingredient in Antabuse. Yet while the liver is able to metabolize the substance, when it is used as one of the chemicals in a cigarette it adds to the strength of the addiction process. Cadmium is one of the chemicals found in cigarettes which have been linked to pulmonary edema while the inhalation of vinyl chloride in lab animals has led to reproductive problems such as fetal death and miscarriages.

It is safe to say that all chemicals in cigarettes are circumspect since even the organic compounds that usually are filtered out by the liver when ingested are changed when they occur as cigarette chemicals and are inhaled. What chemicals are in cigarettes is not simply a means of preservation or an additive for taste, but many have cast a sinister cloak of conspiracy over cigarette chemicals in that some think them to be used for the increase of addictiveness of the product. It is true that some cigarette chemicals do increase the body’s need for more chemicals in a cigarette, and soon the smoker will crave the harmful chemicals in cigarettes in a paradoxical craving that supersedes the survival instinct. A list of the chemicals in cigarette smoke may be found on the websites of many cigarette manufacturers, as will be the fact that some chemicals are found in cigarettes and coffee, while others proudly list their cigarette brand with the least chemicals.

Do not be fooled: if they list chemicals, cigarette smoke is not healthy or healthier simply because there are fewer chemicals on the page. All the chemicals in a cigarette have been shown to have adverse effects on the body and how many chemicals are in cigarettes is an academic argument.