This causes 90 percent of people who play around with cigarettes to become long-term cigarette junkies. Nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes, a natural poison found only in the tobacco plant. Pollutants for the body When injested, nicotine hurts the body. On average, the nicotine from one cigarette raises blood pressure by 20 points, increases the heart rate by 25 beats per minute and contracts blood vessels near the surface of the skin. Tar, another ingredient in cigarettes, is a black and sticky substance that coats the lungs with brown, cancer-causing gunk.
Carbon monoxide is a deadly gas that results from smoking cigarettes.
Carbon monoxide readily combines with hemoglobin in the blood and impedes delivery of oxygen to the brain, heart and other muscles. There are 40 other known carcinogens in cigarettes and more than 4,000 other chemical compounds, none of which can claim any health benefits. When you smoke, you're not only hurting yourself, but also everyone else who breathes the smoke that drifts from the end of your burning cigarette. At home, the secondhand smoke from one room will quickly spread through a modern house. In cars and in the smoking sections of restaurants, smoke can jump to toxic levels in only one minute.