Smoke, Choke, Croak- Radioactive Cigarettes
73Radioactive Smoke
Smoke, Choke, Croak: Radioactive Smoke
Puff by puff, polonium 210 (a radioactive poison) builds up to an equivalent radiation dosage of 300 chest X-rays for a person who smoking one and a half packs a day. A smoker stockpiles their supply of polonium with each drag; therefore, the high exposure associated with a lifetime of smoking.
Cigarettes are not simply dried tobacco leaves rolled in paper. There are more than 5,000 ingredients in cigarettes. The tobacco industry has become master mixologists with the additives. Public health authorities have classified between 45 and 70 of those chemicals, including carcinogens, irritants and other toxins, as potentially causing the harmful effects of tobacco use. Some ingredients are added for flavor, but research has shown that the key purpose of using additives is to improve tobacco’s potency resulting in increased addictiveness–and the additives they choose to use may kill you.
The World Health Organization indicates smoking is the most avoidable cause of death. 90% of the 1.3 million people who die from lung cancers are from cigarette smoking.
Where Does Polonium Come From?
Polonium 210 comes from uranium as it decays. Uranium occurs naturally in the soil. To add insult and injury to this danger, farmers add fertilizers, which are rich in phosphates. Phosphates have a much higher concentrate of Polonium 210.
There are two pathways leading from uranium to polonium in tobacco: through the air and through the roots.
Uranium decays to radon (a gas) to lead, then to later converts to polonium 210. This is absorbed by the roots of the tobacco plant.
Lead also produces Radon gas. This is absorbed on the tobacco leaves.
What is Polonium?
Polonium is an extremely unstable radioactive chemical element. It is highly toxic due to its radioactivity. Given the rarity of polonium, you are unlikely to encounter it; if you see enough to be able to be able to examine its physical properties; you will be dead from radiation exposure.
Why No Polonium in Cigarette Ashes?
Smokers inhale polonium. Polonium goes up in smoke! That means smokers inhale directly into their lungs. Experts note that the effects of radiation damage and other carcinogens exacerbate one another.
Industry Wide Possible Disaster Causes Cigarette Industry to Suppress Polonium Dangers
Cigarette industry scientist never published, or publicized their research on polonium. During the 1990s, lawsuits brought against the industry forced the cigarette manufacturers to admit that smoking is dangerous and addictive. Thousands of these documents indicated that polonium had long been discussed in the cigarette industry.
No Commercial Advantage
In the 70s scientist at Phillip Morris had completed a draft of a paper with a title: “Naturally Occurring Radon-222 Daughters in Tobacco and Smoke condensate.” The Director of Product Development was concerned about publishing the manuscript. He did not want to, “…wake a sleeping giant.” The subject is rumbling, and I doubt we should provide the facts.” R.J. Reynolds in a memo stated, “Removal of these materials would have no commercial advantage.”
Polonium Can Be the First Poison to be Banned from Tobacco
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, 2009; requires the tobacco industry to disclose the “poisons in its products.” The legislation brings tobacco for the first time under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, allowing the agency to regulate components of cigarettes. Forcing the tobacco industry to finally remove polonium from cigarette smoke would make cigarettes less deadly.
Related Smoking Article:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-Smokers-Think-about-Death
My book: www. eyeswideshutanenigma dot com
or enter into Google: Eyes Wide Shut: An enigma
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You did a great job, dallas.
msorensson,
Coming from a PhD, thanks! :-)
I heard there are 400 types of chemical produce in a burning cigarette. Whether you like it or not, no effect filter can eliminate half of them. They are carcinogenic, potential to produce cancer cells in the body.
The list of 599 additives approved by the US Government for use in the manufacture of cigarettes is something every smoker should see. Submitted by the five major American cigarette companies to the Dept. of Health and Human Services in April of 1994, this list of ingredients had long been kept a secret.
While these ingredients are approved as additives for foods, they were not tested by burning them, and it is the burning of many of these substances which changes their properties, often for the worse. Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia are all present in cigarette smoke. Forty-three known carcinogens are in mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke, or both.
It's chilling to think about not only how smokers poison themselves, but what others are exposed to by breathing in the secondhand smoke. The next time you're missing your old buddy, the cigarette, take a good long look at this list and see them for what they are: a delivery system for toxic chemicals and carcinogens.
Tobacco companies reporting this information were:
American Tobacco Company
Brown and Williamson
Liggett Group, Inc.
If I were still smoking cigarettes, this one would have done it! This would have been 'something I read' that triggers that self preservation! Woowie! Glad I was able to finally quit in 2004! Great Hub
LillyGrillzit,
One life saved at-a-time... Congratulations!
Thanks for your comments.
Secondhand smoke is supposed to be kept away from kids, who have no choice in the matter. Sadly, it's not.
Very interesting and frightening read. Makes me glad I gave up back in 1975, and sorry that I ever started!
Great and useful Hub which I hope many, may people "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest!"
Love and peace
Tony
Silver Poet,
Secondhand smoke is a combination of the smoke from a burning cigarette and the smoke exhaled by a smoker. Also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), it can be recognized easily by its distinctive odor. ETS contaminates the air and is retained in clothing, hair, curtains, and furniture. Many people find ETS unpleasant, annoying, and irritating to the eyes and nose. More importantly, it represents a dangerous health hazard. Over 4,000 different chemicals have been identified in ETS, and at least 43 of these chemicals cause cancer.
Approximately 26 percent of adults in the United States currently smoke cigarettes, and 50 to 67 percent of children under five live in homes with at least one adult smoker.
Some studies suggest that smoking during pregnancy causes birth defects such as cleft lip or palate. Smoking mothers produce less milk, and their babies have a lower birth weight. Maternal smoking also is associated with neonatal death from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the major cause of death in infants between one month and one year old.
Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy are more likely to suffer behavioral problems such as hyperactivity than children of non-smoking mothers. Modest impairment in school performance and intellectual achievement has also been demonstrated.
Although Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) is dangerous to everyone, fetuses, infants, and children are at most risk because it can damage developing organs, such as the lungs and brain.
Your risk of developing cancer from ETS is about 100 times greater than from outdoor cancer-causing pollutants? Second hand cigarette smoke causes more than 3,000 non-smokers to die of lung cancer each year.
tonymac04,
Smoking harms and kills you:
One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age.
Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number of cancers.
The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels.
This can cause heart attacks and stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated.
Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes in up to a full cup (210 g) of tar in a year.
Changing to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs.
Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body and especially your heart work harder. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your lungs.
Smoking causes disease and is a slow way to die. The strain of smoking effects on the body often causes years of suffering. Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure.
Lung cancer from smoking is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers.
Heart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers.
Smoking causes fat deposits to narrow and block blood vessels which leads to heart attack.
Smoking causes around one in five deaths from heart disease.
In younger people, three out of four deaths from heart disease are due to smoking.
Cigarette smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of low birth weight, prematurity, spontaneous abortion, and perinatal mortality in humans, which has been referred to as the fetal tobacco syndrome.
As mentioned earlier, this list can only begin to convey the harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes and its long term side effects.
I am surprised that this information was not required instead of the silly label about smoking being bad for your health.
dahoglund,
Since the tobacco industry is now under the control of FDA, there will be changes...(The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, 2009). The legislation brings tobacco for the first time under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, allowing the agency to regulate components of cigarettes.
Hi Dallas - Your article is all about my "hot button," tobacco's radioactivity. This has been known about by the general public since the early 1960s, but there has been little public awareness of it. Your article helps to cure that sad fact. Thanks.
Here is another HubPages hub on the subject - http://hubpages.com/t/c451f
A long and detailed journal article is to be found at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3387/is_n3 and many of today's researchers cite it as one of their references in reports in English language journals and in journals from around the world.
Gus :-)))
GusTheRedneck,
Gus your wisdom and knowledge is hidden behind the "GusThe Redneck" personna!
Thanks for the information.
Oh my oh my…. I’ve got to read this hub of yours twice a day. The next umpteenth time I’m going to quit I’m going to try that artificial cigarette. Perhaps that one will be my saviour. I am sooooo fed-up with my addictive self. Thanks for this much appreciated hub, dallas. I need to read hubs like this until I finally ‘get it’. Bye for now!
MartieCoetser,
Remember the "Little Train that Could?" It was a small train. It was not nice and shiny... It wanted to climb the high mountian like the "Big Shiny Trains." The innocent child told the little train, Just say, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...all the way up the mountain."
The little train started up the "imposible" mountain...
When the going got tough, it started telling itself: "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" until finally, against all odds: It was on top of the mountain!
We all have our "mountains." It is up to us to choose to conquer our fears. Our, "I cants" can and do stop us from doing what we want to do, or be... When we release our "emergency brakes" and let us be ourselves, nothing can stop us...!
We have choices. Each day can be a good day, or a bad day!
You do "have it.!" Now claim it and it is yours.. You can join the cigarette free life of clean air and longer life!
OK, I am stepping off my "soap box!"
Good luck!
Thanks, dallas! I think I can do this too. Just need to take the first step... I'm actually so ready for this... Thanks again.
PS: You are quite a master on the soap box, are you not? I am impressed :)
MartieCoetser,
I know YOU can... Being "ready" is the first step up the mountain...
Remember, I used to be a science instructor... I have both a single and multiple subjects teaching credentials.
While we've all heard about the problems with smoking, this is the first I've heard of polonium. Ugh. Another reason to quit.
Dolores Monet,
Thanks for your comments. The tobacco industry was aware of the polonium radiation; it was suppressed as noted. It was not commercially advantageous for them to release this information...
dallas,
You're a freaking genius.
I quit 14 years ago. It was harder than quiting sex, but the freedom and good health were worth it. Sex still allows me at least some freedom and keeps me in shape. so I struggle on with it. Sex,unlike cigarettes, I've never had to pay for, so this is another upside.
I'll quit with the stupidity, and just compliment you on another great hub my friend!
jim
TheManWithNoPants,
Welcome Jim! My hero!
Sex also makes pretty children! smoking can kil;l children...
Thanks Jim.. I am preoccupied with a 28 foot Cabin Cruiser "fixer-upper." I plan to sail from Avila Beach to San Francisco, under the b ridge, up the deep Water Channel, to Stockton, and then to Sacramento.. A 3-4 day trip...
dallas93444 Hub Author 16 months ago
Darlene Sabella,
Knowledge empowers us. We all learn. Life is about the living. We learn from our mistakes. It is never too late for YOU! You may have some "challenges," but everyday is a good day! Can you image a day where you are not aware? Have no knowledge of what is, or who you are?
Thanks for the compliment. I have an enquiring mind. One that is "restless..."
Tell me how to "cross links" and I will/you can...