What About Cigarette Filters?

Cigarette smokers are at danger of more than nicotine when they
smoke. Tobacco smoke contains many different chemicals including
benzene, formaldehyde, styrene, and carbon monoxide, all toxic
chemicals with known effects. Nicotine is broken down by the
body to an even more addictive and long lasting substance –
cotinine.

But what about the filters? The filters are usually made from
cellulose acetate, and studies have shown that smokers commonly
ingest and/or inhale some of these fibres. This happens because
small fragments of cellulose acetate become separated from the
filter at the end face. The cut surface of the filter of nearly
all cigarettes has these fragments. This means that if you smoke
a filter cigarette you are likely to have small fragments of
plastic-like material in your tubes and lungs.

Don’t let this be an excuse to go back to smoking unfiltered
cigarettes. Cigarette smoke damages your heart as well as your
lungs. Carbon monoxide and nicotine are the two chemicals in
cigarette smoke that probably have the most effect on the heart.
Carbon monoxide attaches to red blood cells, so that in smokers
up to half the blood can be carrying carbon monoxide rather than
oxygen.

Nicotine stimulates the body to produce adrenaline which makes
the heart beat faster and raises blood pressure, forcing the
heart to work harder.

Other parts of the smoke appear to damage the lining of the
coronary arteries and this leads to the build up of fatty
material in the arteries.

Many smokers have switched to low tar cigarettes. It is the tar
that causes cancer, but low tar cigarettes don't necessarily
have less carbon monoxide and nicotine, so may be no less
harmful for the heart. (This doesn't mean that you should go
back to higher tar cigarettes, but it does mean that you can't
believe that your health will be fine because you are smoking
low tar cigarettes.)

My father's last words before he died of a heart attack were
"I'm dying for a cigarette." He had no idea how true that was.