Nicotine content of cigarettes
The substance that most interests smokers in tobacco is nicotine. The highly toxic alkaloid occurs naturally in tobacco plants. How high the content is varies from brand to brand.
However, the EU has defined limits for nicotine as well as for tar and carbon monoxide that manufacturers must adhere to.
- Nicotine: 1 mg per cigarette
- Tar: 10 mg per cigarette
- Carbon monoxide: 10 mg per cigarette
However, it is not only the nicotine content that determines the dose of nicotine that reaches the body, but also how much and how intensively you inhale the smoke. How much nicotine a cigarette contains is therefore less decisive than one might think.
Additives facilitate the entry into addiction
Some substances are added to cigarettes to help teens and other new smokers get started:
- Ammonia increases the effect of nicotine.
- Sweeteners improve the taste.
- Cocoa dilates bronchial tubes, allowing smokers to inhale vapor more deeply.
- Menthol ensures that the smoke is more easily absorbed into the lungs.
Other problematic ingredients in cigarettes
The fact that smoking causes cancer is now no longer disputed by anyone. The substances that are most dangerous to health are formed during the combustion process – often from previously harmless starting materials such as sugar.
At temperatures between 500 and 950 °C, more than 4,800 different substances are formed that enter the lungs as gases or solid particles. Of these, 70 are highly toxic and either proven or possible carcinogens.
The main toxins include:
| Solid particles | |
| Tar | Carcinogenic |
| Aromatic hydrocarbons | carcinogenic |
| Nicotine | addictive, neurotoxin |
| Phenol | co-carcinogenic** and irritant |
| ß-Naphtylamine | carcinogenic |
| N-nitrosonornicotine | carcinogenic |
| Benzopyrene (benzene pyrene, benzo(a)pyrene) | carcinogenic |
| Metals (nickel, arsenic, polonium) | carcinogenic |
| Indoles | tumor accelerators |
| Carbazole | Tumor Accelerator |
| Catechol | Co-carcinogenic |
| Gases | |
| Carbon monoxide | blocks oxygen transport |
| Hydrogen cyanide compounds | cilientoxic* and irritant |
| Acetaldehyde | cilientoxic and irritant |
| Acrolein | cilientoxic and irritant |
| Ammonia | cilientoxic and irritant |
| Formaldehyde | cilientoxic and irritant |
| Nitrogen oxides | cilientoxic and irritant |
| Nitrosamines | carcinogenic |
| Hydrazines | carcinogenic |
| Vinyl chloride | carcinogenic |
| * cilientoxic: damages the cilia in the lungs | |
| ** co-carcinogen: a substance is itself not carcinogenic, but in certain combinations with other substances that are also not carcinogenic. | |
Insight into the list of ingredients
In the case of cigarettes, the quantitative composition is a closely guarded secret of the tobacco companies. However, manufacturers are required by the Tobacco Products Ordinance to report at least the nature and effect of the additives used to the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. These ingredient lists for each tobacco brand are available online on the ministry’s website (www.bmel.de).
Dangerous secondhand smoke
A burning cigarette emits two types of smoke: mainstream smoke is formed when you take a drag on the stick; sidestream smoke forms between puffs. Both types of smoke contain the same ingredients, but in different concentrations.
Cigars, hookah & co
Cigarettes account for around 90 percent of all tobacco products. In addition, the addictive drug nicotine is also consumed, for example, in the form of cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, water pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff. Recently, there are devices in which the tobacco is only heated, but not burned.
Regardless of the way in which the toxins enter the body and whatever is added to the tobacco – there is no tobacco product that is not harmful to health.
This also applies to smokeless chewing tobacco and snuff. It contains more than 20 carcinogenic substances that enter the body through the mucous membranes. This can cause oral cavity and pancreatic cancer if consumed over a long period of time.
