Fascinating Cigarette Smoking Facts

When cigarettes were first introduced, smoking was advertised as a cool, sexy, enjoyable, and healthy habit.  Movie stars and athletes always had a lit cigarette in their hands.  The television was filled with cigarette ads.  Over the last century, the world has dramatically changed its once clouded view.  It is now well-known that smoking is an unhealthy and addictive habit.  Smokers are not only slowly killing themselves but also the people around them.  The television no longer advertises cigarette smoking.  Nowadays, it is no longer permitted to smoke inside a public building.  Smoking is now considered a dirty habit that is frowned upon, and smokers are seen as indifferent people who have no regard for their own and other people’s health.

Here are some fascinating facts about cigarettes and smoking.

• The cigarette business is one of the world’s largest industries, with a global take of over $400 billion a year. Approximately 1 trillion cigarettes are sold from country to country each year, making it the most traded item in history.
• It has been reported that nicotine content of cigarettes have been increased, by as much as 11 percent in some brands (namely Camel, Newport, and Doral).
• Placing warning labels on cigarettes and the ban on cigarette advertising on TV was signed into law by President Nixon in 1970. However, the last date that cigarette ads were permitted to air on TV was extended by one day, from December 31, 1970 to January 1, 1971. The television networks wanted to take advantage of the New Year’s Day football games increasing their revenue from cigarette advertising.
• Cigarette manufacturers in the US make more money from sales to countries all over the globe than they do in the US.
• Seventy percent of the global cigarette market is owned by the American brands Marlboro, Kool, Camel, and Kent.
• The ingredients of a cigarette stick are: arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and 43 other known carcinogens.
• Crocidolite asbestos, an active carcinogen, was once an ingredient of the Kent brand of cigarettes during the early 1950s.
• Urea, which is found in urine, adds flavor to cigarettes.
• There are about 4,000 ingredients in cigarettes. These ingredients, when burned, can produce more than 200 chemicals which have been linked to lung damage.
• Many kinds of filters have been tested. But Boris Aivaz, a Hungarian inventor, invented the “cork tip” filter in 1925. He patented the process of using crepe paper as filters.
• The legal age allowed to purchase cigarettes in most countries is 18; in Japan it is 20.
• The sale of tobacco products is highly regulated by law. But there is no legal age limit to smoke tobacco products.
• In most countries, smoking in public is banned. This has resulted, as many social businesses have claimed, to a significant drop of people frequenting pubs, bars, and restaurants.
• Smoking will make you lose 14 years of your life, as claimed by scientists. However, smokers may still live out a normal lifespan, they won’t necessarily die young.
• The top three states with the highest percentage of smokers in the US are: Kentucky with 28.7%, Indiana with 27.3%, and Tennessee with 26.8%. The three states with the lowest percentage are Utah with 11.5%, California with 15.2%, and Connecticut with 16.5%.
• The statistics of women smokers and men smokers around the globe are: US, 22% women and 35% men; Europe, 26% women and 46% men; Africa, 4% women and 29% men; Southeast Asia, 4% women and 44% men; and Western Pacific, 8% women and 60% men.
• After inhalation, it only takes 10 seconds for nicotine to reach the brain. In smokers, it is found in every part of the body, including breast milk.
• Cigarette has about 20% sugar. How burning sugar affects the body is unknown and most people with diabetes are not aware of the sugar in cigarettes.
• Cigarettes labeled “lite” have CO2 added to the tobacco. It is produced by superheating until the tobacco puffs up, which then fills the same paper tube as regular tobacco.
• On average, smokers who smoke lite and menthol cigarettes consume the same levels of tar and nicotine than regular cigarette smokers because the former draw harder on the cigarettes.
• Because lite cigarettes have air holes around the filter to aerate the smoke as it is drawn in, to get a stronger hit, many smokers cover these holes with their finger or their lips.
• A smoker’s immune system is more active than a non-smoker’s because it has to work harder. This means that a smoker’s blood has less antioxidants, but because of its more active nature, the smoker’s immune system is quicker to respond to virus attacks.
• Smoking after meals is believed to make digestion of food easier. The truth is the body prioritizes the protection of the blood cells and the flushing of toxins from the brain over food digestion.
• A smoking fetish is a condition in which smokers, usually men, are aroused by the sight of the opposite sex smoking, usually women. But like most fetishes, this arousal may be rooted in childhood experiences. Menthol cigarettes in particular actually force blood away from the penis if smoked while a man is aroused.
• Approximately 25% of cigarettes sold worldwide are smuggled.
• Smoking is considered a right of passage towards adulthood. As a result, most smokers start the habit well before the legal age for smoking.
• Cigarettes are considered as the ultimate gateway drug. It is legally available and involves the mastery of a unique intake technique. However, smokers rarely get high from smoking cigarettes after their bodies have gotten used to the nicotine.
• The cigarette, aside from its many adverse side effects, also has a placebo effect on smokers. Smoking produces different after-effects for different individuals depending on their expectations. Some claim to experience calmness, relaxation, alertness, stimulation, or concentration, among many others. In actuality, the relaxing factor is only achieved when the brain’s hunger for nicotine is satisfied. This placebo effect, in its various forms, is one of the excuses smokers use to continue their habit.
• Producers of cigarettes make sure that the potency of the nicotine in cigarettes is many times more than that of a tobacco plant. They achieve this by using various active ingredients and applying special methods in the production process.
• Manufacturers add toppings to their cigarettes to make their product stand out from others with its unique flavor and taste.  These toppings include clove, orange oil, lime oil, lavender oil, dill seen oil, carrot oil, mace oil, licorice, apricot stone, cocoa, myrrh, beet juice, bay leaf, oak, rum, vanilla, and vinegar.

Stop smoking now, before it’s too late. If you want to get help in a natural way, then one of the best products you can get is the Crave-Rx drops that are available. Crave-Rx drops are particularly popular because they have proven to be so effective, and they are a 100% all natural product that was specially designed by psychologist Michele Carelse, as part of the Stop Smoking UltraPack.

• The Tragic Tobacco Story
• Say “NO!” To Cigarettes
• The Many Dangers Of Second Hand Smoke
• Healthier New Year Resolution #6 – Quit Smoking
• Why Should I Quit Smoking?
• Top 10 Unhealthy Habits To Break
• Bloggers Against Abuse Challenge - Stop Self-Abuse
• Oxidative Stress And Free Radicals
• 18 Ways To A Safe And Healthy Home
• Prevention Strategies for Colds and Flu