If there's one thing I can't stand it's this:

"Arsenic, benzene, carbon monoxide, Plutonium 210 (sic) and a host of other poisons are in secondhand smoke...or formaldehyde or cadmium."

If anti-tobacco operatives would say chemicals instead of poisons I'd be a little happier because everything is a poison in a large enough dose. There are such things as acute oxygen poisoning (oxygen toxicity) and water intoxication (hyponatremia). Oxygen and water. Oh my. We breathe oxygen and drink water every day without calling either poisons...except for the rare times they actually poison someone.

That's not saying I'd let these people off the hook if they used the word "chemicals" when trying to scare people into hating smokers. It's just that it's closer to the truth than calling arsenic, benzene, and carbon monoxide, poisons. In fact, according to one of the websites listed below, arsenic derived it's poisonous notoriety from a movie:

"Arsenic is best known as a deadly poison. To a large degree this reputation derived from a 1944 film classic, Arsenic and Old Lace. In the movie, two spinsters, as acts of charity, murder lonely old men with their homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic. Less known is the fact that the wine was also laced with strychnine and cyanide. The fact is that the manifestations of arsenic poisoning, except in very high doses, are typically not acute."

Here are a few other things on arsenic from the websites:

"In the US: One estimate is that 900,000 people a day are exposed to arsenic."

"Arsenical pesticides are still used in some areas in agriculture."

"With regular and long-term exposure, some tolerance may develop. At one time, people in southern Austria reportedly found that eating arsenic had a 'tonic' effect and were able to ingest without toxicity what would usually be a fatal dose."

"Documented cases of arsenic poisoning have been associated with ingestion of traditional Chinese herbal balls, Korean herbal preparations used to treat hemorrhoids, and kelp supplements."

"Arsenic is presently not considered an essential nutrient for humans. However, arsenic deficiency states have been reported in some animals. Goats, miniature pigs and rats fed low-arsenic diets were reported to have depressed growth, impaired fertility and increased perinatal mortality...depressed triglyceride concentrations...lactating goats...suffer myocardial damage..."

"Worldwide, the daily dietary intake of arsenic ranges from 12 to 60 micrograms. In the United States...approximately 30 micrograms. This figure excludes any contribution from shellfish. Major sources of dietary arsenic are fish, grain and cereal products."

"However, arsenic can be toxic and is a known carcinogen and teratogen..."

"Arsenic has a special role in medical history. Paul Ehrlich...discovered the first treatment for syphilis... [I]s used in the treatment of protozoal diseases...in homeopathy. And...was found to induce complete remission in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia..."

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That's some poison. We feed it to our kids for breakfast, but I've never seen a commercial trying to scare us away from doing that.

Next on that list was benzene. Here's another poison we expose ourselves to without blinking an eye. How many people hold their breaths when filling up their cars? How many hold it when in traffic? Besides tobacco smoke and the automotive world it's also found in glues, paints, furniture wax, detergents, eggs, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy products and coffee.

Remember, this is a "poison" we're speaking about. A poison so dangerous that I've never seen a commercial telling us we shouldn't drive our cars, which generates the vast majority of benzene.

Carbon monoxide. Is it a poison? Well, like the others it certainly can be, but has a smoker ever been rushed to the hospital because he sucked in too much carbon monoxide? I've never heard of it. I've heard of people with leaky exhaust pipes being poisoned. The same goes for gas furnaces in homes. But smokers? Or nonsmokers? Never.

Carbon monoxide "appears to help restore blood flow to organs threatened with a cut off blood supply...It does so by enhancing the body's own clot-dissolving mechanisms and by dilating blood vessels. The researchers demonstrated the results in mice."

"'CO can paradoxically either imperil or salvage tissue by disparate mechanisms,' the authors report."

"The body itself produces carbon monoxide when a part of the organism becomes oxygen-starved due to blood vessel blockage, a condition called ischemia. The carbon monoxide is created as part of a natural process in which an enzyme called heme oxygenase type 1 breaks down vital molecules called hemes, when the cells carrying them wear out."

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"Two scientific studies say carbon monoxide is safe to use in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) techniques, countering claims by opponents that use of the gas could harm food safety."

"The studies could calm consumer fears, raised by groups who claim that carbon monoxide makes meat appear fresher than it actually is by reacting with the meat pigment myoglobin to create carboxymyoglobin, a bright red pigment."

"The opponents claim this masks signs indicating the aging and spoilage of meats leading consumers to believe meat is fresh and safe when it may not be."

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Here, the argument is not over using a poison in wrapping up food products, it's only that its use may make the meat look fresher than it really is.

Lastly, "Doctors have long known that smokers rarely suffer from a common form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) called ulcerative colitis, but they didn't know why. A new study...might help explain this apparent resistance. Scott Plevy, M.D., and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh found that carbon monoxide (CO), a component of cigarette smoke, helps shut down the intestinal inflammation that causes ulcerative colitis."

"CO is best known as a toxic air pollutant, but small amounts of this gas are also produced in the human body as a normal by-product of metabolism, suggesting that the effects of CO must not be all bad...It acts as an anti-inflammatory agent."

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That leaves polonium 210, formaldehyde and cadmium from the original quote. Okay, short and sweet:

Polonium 210 is found in food. A smoker is said to ingest twice the amount as a nonsmoker, the same amount from food as nonsmokers and then an equal amount from smoking. Big deal.

Formaldehyde. The body makes it. It's found in many wood products and a number of other things, but probably the most interesting is it's in cosmetics, latex paint, and permanent press clothing. In other words, you put it on your body, you wear it over your body and you rest your body on it. We have a real love affair with this poison.

Cadmium. According to the The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR):
How might I be exposed to cadmium?

Breathing contaminated workplace air (battery manufacturing, metal soldering or welding).

Eating foods containing it; low levels in all foods (highest in shellfish, liver, and kidney meats).

Breathing cadmium in cigarette smoke (doubles the average daily intake).

Drinking contaminated water.

Breathing contaminated air near the burning of fossil fuels or municipal waste.

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Another doubling of intake if you smoke. I am not impressed.

What I am impressed with is how totally ignorant one can be and still be employed in the anti-tobacco industry. Even more impressive is how these people are taken seriously. I find this absolutely amazing.

Some might say I'm too harsh because these chemicals are called toxins or poisons by the scientific community. But it's the same scientific community that tells us that it takes a certain dose of these chemicals to make them toxic.

That's something the anti-tobacco industry totally ignores as they try to scare the pants off everyone. And their stooges, like the one I quoted at the beginning, unaware of how ignorant they are, repeat it.

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What I am impressed with is how totally ignorant one can be and still be employed in the anti-tobacco industry.

I would say that ignorance of basic science is a prerequisite for working in tobacco control. They wouldn't want people who know better working there or they wouldn't be so convincing to the media. Then there are those like Stan Glantz who know that they're full of sh*t but don't care since they love the publicity and are getting paid handsomely for the BS they crank out.

I remeber a Truth commercial a few years back where some kid was crank calling a tobacco company and asking if they would buy his dog's pee because it contains urea which is also in cigarette smoke - turns out its also in just about every shampoo and moisturizing lotion on the market.

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Originally posted by NickM_71:
...buy his dog's pee because it contains urea which is also in cigarette smoke - turns out its also in just about every shampoo and moisturizing lotion on the market.

I didn't know it could be found in those things so I looked it up to make sure you were correct. Of course. I also found that it's "Sometimes used as a browning agent in factory-produced pretzels."

Those commercials are even dumber than I thought. Thanks Nick. LOL

The point is, the smokers is closer to these agents than the non-smoker and they are still living and breathing. The concentration is much higher for the smoker as they are creating it evidently.

How many women are using snake venom for beauty?

That's true Bruce, but even non-smokers are exposed to these things on a daily basis through the use of deoderants, shampoo, food, water, and breathing the air - (even w/o SHS). In most of the anti-smoking prpaganda studies, they go looking for chemicals whose concentration they know to be much higher in cigarette smoke, but still, the concentration is well below a toxic level. Constant exposure over many years may raise the risk of disease for some smokers but not all.

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Constant exposure over many years may raise the risk of disease for some smokers but not all.

That pretty much sums it all up, Nick. It MAY increase RISK..........not it CAUSES such and such.