Shall we smoke, sir?

I personally have been smoking for 9 years, and somehow it turned out that I was not at all interested in what exactly a cigarette was. And, as it turned out, I didn’t know much.

Nicotine is a stimulant and the active ingredient in tobacco, a leafy plant found in many places around the world. Smoking a cigarette involves inhaling a complex set of substances - including gases and tars.

What's in a cigarette?

Many are concerned about the alarming amount of dyes, stabilizers and other ingredients that are added to foods. But not many people wonder what is contained in a regular cigarette and what products are formed during smoking?

Cigarette flavors that have become popular recently include childhood favorites: cocoa, vanilla, licorice, sugar and even honey. In addition to them, more than 4,000 chemicals can be found in cigarette smoke that are widely used in other areas of human activity. Here are some of them.

Ammonium - found in toilet cleaners.

Acetone - found in nail polish remover.

Cadmium is a highly toxic metal used in batteries.

Vinyl chloride - used in the manufacture of PVC.

Naphthalene - used as a moth repellent.

Carbon monoxide is carbon monoxide, a toxic combustion product, typical sources are car exhaust pipes and gas burners. In large quantities - for example, when gas burners malfunction, this gas causes instant poisoning and death. In small doses, for example when smoking a cigarette, carbon monoxide poisons the smoker's breath.

Tar - Cigarette smoke deposits in the lungs and clogs them. Once inhaled, the smoke condenses and approximately 70% of the tar settles in the lungs as condensation, a sticky, brown substance that leaves yellow-brown stains on the smoker's fingers and teeth.

Nicotine is a powerful and fast-acting addictive substance. When tobacco smoke is inhaled, nicotine is absorbed into the bloodstream, causing body reactions such as increased heart rate and increased blood pressure.

Cyanide - used in gas chambers.

Formaldehyde is used to preserve the bodies of the dead.

Arsenic is a known poison.

To find out the degree of dependence on nicotine, a smoker only needs to answer two basic questions: how long after waking up does he smoke his first cigarette and how many cigarettes does he smoke per day? The less the first and the more the second, the higher the dependence. A widely used assessment procedure, the Fagerstrom test, is based on this approach.

Fagestrom test

1. How soon do you smoke your first cigarette after waking up?

— Not earlier than in 60 minutes (0)
— 31-60 minutes (1)
— 6-30 minutes (2)
— Within 5 minutes (3)

2. Is it difficult for you to abstain from smoking where it is prohibited?

— No (0)
— Yes (1)

3. Quitting smoking which cigarette makes you most uncomfortable?

— First morning (1)
— Any other (0)

4. How many cigarettes per day do you smoke?

— 10 or less (0)
— 11-20 (1)
— 21-30 (2)
– 31 or more (3)

5. Do you smoke more often in the first hours after waking up than during the rest of the day?

— No (0)
— Yes (1)

6. Do you smoke if you are so sick that you have to stay in bed most of the day?

— No (0)
— Yes (1)

If the total score is below four, your nicotine addiction is not severe and you will find it relatively easy to quit smoking. If the total score exceeds 7 points, you suffer from severe nicotine addiction and to give up this habit you need specialist advice or simply excellent willpower.

I have 4 points. What about you?