Cigarettes are harmful to health, as we all know. Tobacco usage remains the leading cause of preventable death in the USA. In the United States alone, smoking kills 484,000 people every year, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to Medical Daily, every day 3,200 American minors under the age of 18 try their first cigarette. If you’re a smoker but want to quit after learning exactly what’s in cigarettes, you might rethink your habit.
Below is a great graph from SmokeFreeForsythe.org that details the terrifying chemicals found in cigarettes. Until you see the picture below, the words “hexamine,” “stearic acid,” and “cadmium” might not mean much to you.
If the diagram that was just shown to you gave you chills, you have every right to feel that way.
The cadmium in cigarettes comes from used battery metal, the butane from lighter fluid, the methane from rotting garbage, and the arsenic from deadly poison. Other ingredients include ammonia from bathroom cleanser, methanol from rocket fuel, hexamine from bbq lighters, and stearic acid from candle wax. Yuck!
But maybe you’re a heavy smoker and this chart doesn’t help you at all. We have one more suggestion for you, so please keep reading.
If you still need convincing to give up smoking, consider how rapidly your body will heal once you put the cigarettes away. According to the American Cancer Society, your heart rate and blood pressure will begin to decline within 20 minutes after you quit smoking. The problem persists beyond that point.
By the second week, you should feel a marked improvement in your circulation and lung capacity. If you quit smoking, your risk of cardiovascular disease will decrease by half within a year.
You will also notice some additional quick shifts. Teeth and fingernails will turn from yellow to white, breath, hair, and clothing will all smell better, and you’ll notice an overall improvement in the quality of your life. It won’t be simple, but the payoff is huge. Both your appearance and your general health will drastically improve.