How many toxic substances are in cigarette smoke?
(Baonghean.vn) - Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals. Of these, more than 200 are harmful to health, including addictive substances and toxic substances. They are divided into four main groups.
1. Nicotine:Nicotine is a colorless substance that turns brown when burned and takes on the odor of tobacco when exposed to air. Nicotine is absorbed through the skin, mouth, and nasal mucosa or inhaled into the lungs. The average smoker takes in 1 to 2 mg of nicotine per cigarette. Smoking delivers nicotine quickly to the brain, within 10 seconds of inhalation.
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies nicotine as a substance with primarily addictive pharmacological properties, similar to the drugs heroin and cocaine. The addictive effects of nicotine are primarily on the central nervous system with the presence of nicotine receptors on brain structures.
2. Carbon Monoxide (CO Gas)
CO is present in high concentrations in cigarette smoke and is absorbed into the blood, binding to hemoglobin with an affinity 20 times stronger than oxygen. In a person who smokes an average of 1 pack of cigarettes per day, the reduced hemoglobin content can be as high as 7-8%. The increase in reduced hemoglobin shifts the oxy-hemoglobin dissociation curve, leading to a decrease in the amount of oxygen delivered to the tissues, causing tissue ischemia and possibly contributing to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.
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3. Small particles in cigarette smoke
The harmful effects of tobacco are that cigarette smoke contains many irritants in gaseous or particulate form. These irritants cause structural changes in the bronchial mucosa leading to proliferation of bronchial glands, mucus-secreting cells and loss of ciliated cells. These changes increase mucus secretion and reduce the efficiency of mucociliary clearance. Most of these changes are reversible when smoking is stopped.
4. Carcinogens
Cigarette smoke contains over 40 substances, including aromatic compounds with closed rings such as benzopyrene, which are carcinogenic. These chemicals affect the surface cells of the respiratory tract, causing chronic inflammation, tissue destruction, cell transformation leading to dysplasia, and malignancy.
