What is Carbon Monoxide Doing in Cigarettes?
The Smoking Facts About a Lethal Gas
What is carbon monoxide doing in cigarettes?
The smoking facts reveal that this lethal gas is one of the harmful effects of tobacco combustion.
Along with the other 4000 chemicals contained in a cigarette, you inhale some with every puff.
One of the many harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes is an elevated level of carbon monoxide in the body.
Of the many chemicals contained in a cigarette, carbon monoxide is one that you should pay
close attention to.
It is particularly dangerous to human beings because of its affinity for attaching itself to the hemoglobin molecule.
In the normal course of human physiology the oxygen molecules that you breathe in would attach to
a hemoglobin molecule and get carried throughout your body in the blood stream.
At the end of that journey the oxygen molecule would be released into the tissues and a
carbon dioxide molecule would hop on board the hemoglobin for the return trip to your lungs
so it can be exhaled.
When CO enters your system it attaches itself to the hemoglobin molecule with a very strong bond.
Because the bond to the hemoglobin molecule is so strong, there is no way for the oxygen that you need to get distributed to the tissues. Your oxygen molecules are literally
stranded without a ride to your tissues.
When CO is attached to the hemoglobin molecule it is called carboxyhemoglobin.
What is Carbon Monoxide Doing in Cigarettes?
CO is formed when there is incomplete combustion of organic materials.
In your home you may even have a CO detector to warn you if your
furnace is not functioning properly and carbon monoxide gas is building up in your house.
In a cigarette, CO is formed as one of the harmful effects of tobacco combustion that is inefficient in burning the dried tobacco leaves completely.
If your cigarette were to go up in flames like a Christmas tree it would not produce as
much carbon monoxide, but because the cigarette manufacturers want the tobacco to smolder and produce smoke,
the cigarette is produced in way that promotes slow and inefficient burning.
Carbon monoxide is produced as a result of this process.
Smoking Facts about Carbon Monoxide
- this gas is classed as an asphyxiant because it prevents oxygen from binding to the
hemoglobin on the red blood cells. In other words you suffocate without being smothered!
- A normal carboxyhemoglobin level in adults is under 1%. In a
heavy smoker this level can rise to as high as 20% ( 4-20% range).
- Carbon monoxide detectors for use in your home are set to go off at a level that would create a human carboxyhemoglobin level of 10%.
- Carbon monoxide can be transported across the placental barrier, meaning that it can reach an unborn child in the womb.
- Infants and young children are believed to be more susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning
than adults.
Go back to Cigarette Facts about Smoking the
Numerous Ingredients in Cigarettes
Go back to What Poisons Are in Cigarettes? - Smoking Facts
About Toxic Cigarette Ingredients
Go back home to Smoking Facts Reveal
the Real Dangers of Cigarette Smoking
