Tobacco Facts
What is Tobacco?
Tobacco is a green, leafy plant. When dried and processed, it is either placed in cigarettes or other tobacco industry products. Tobacco is grown world-wide and supports a billion-dollar industry. (There is a picture below of a tobacco plant.)
What is Smokeless Tobacco?
Smokeless Tobacco comes in 2 forms: Snuff and Chewing Tobacco. Snuff is a fine-grain tobacco that looks like a tea bag pouch, placed in the mouth. Chewing Tobacco comes in shredded, twisted, or "cubed" tobacco leaves also placed in the mouth. Both, Snuff and Chewing Tobacco, are suppose to be sucked on. The nicotine is absorbed in the bloodstream. Using Smokeless Tobacco posses many health risks, such as, cancer of the mouth, brain damage, higher risks for heart attacks, etc.
Interesting Facts
- The average age that a young Canadian has his or her first cigarette is 12.8
- "We don't smoke the s***! We just sell it. We reserve that right for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid." ~ R.J. Reynolds (Tobacco Company Executive)
- In 1997, a Big Tobacco executive said, under oath, that he believed Gummy Bears were as addictive as cigarettes
- Tobacco companies produce approximetly 5.6 trillion cigarettes each year
- "Cherry Skoal is for someone who likes the taste of candy, if you know what I'm saying." ~ Bob Beets former sales representative for U.S. Tobacco
- One in 8 trees cut down worldwide is destroyed for tobacco production
- Every cigarette takes 7 minutes off a smoker's life
- "If children don't like to be in a smoky room, they'll leave." When asked about infants who can't leave a smoky room, Charles Harper (former tobacco company chairman) stated "At some point, they begin to crawl."
What is Smoke?
Cigarette smoke contains about 4,000 chemicals and poisons. 50 of the 4, 000 chemicals are known to cause cancer. When you breathe in smoke, you inhale these chemicals; tar(road surfaces), butane(lighter fluid), carbon monoxide(gas from car exhaust), ammonia(cleaning product), formeldehyde(used to preserve dead bodies and animals), phenol tuleune(industrial solvent), methanol(rocket fuel), cadmium(substance used in car batteries), hydrogen cyanide(poison used in gas chambers), acetone(nail varnish), stearic acid(candle wax), radon(radioactive gas), and arsenic(nail varnish remover); just to name a few.
What is Nicotine?
Nicotine is one of the 4,000 chemicals in tobacco. It is highly addictive, but not a significant direct source of disease. If nicotine could be delivered to addicted smokers in a purer form without the deadly gases and particles formed by combustion, the death and disease caused by cigarettes would drop dramatically.