All tobacco and tobacco-like products are harmful. Tobacco is the only consumer product that will kill more than half of its regular users when it’s used as intended by the tobacco manufacturers.
Tobacco smoke has up to 7,000 different chemicals. Of those chemicals, at least 172 are toxic (poisonous), and about 70 are known to cause cancer.
Smokeless tobacco (moist snuff, dip or chew) and tobacco that’s used up the nose (dry snuff or snus) has over 3,000 chemicals. Of those, 28 are known to cause cancer. Snuff products have more nicotine than cigarettes. The average cigarette has 8.4 mg of nicotine; the average moist dip product has 14.5 mg of nicotine.
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are battery-powered vaporizers that use liquid vapour to deliver mist into the body (vaping). The mist is often a mixture of chemicals and sometimes contains nicotine. E-cigarettes contain at least 10 chemicals that are linked to cancer and birth defects. E-cigarettes could put you at risk of nicotine addiction and are not recommended as an aid to quitting tobacco.
Vaping can affect the people around you. The exhaled mist that comes from an e-cigarette or vaping device has a mixture of chemicals that are toxic. Although the toxins are lower than with tobacco smoke, it can still cause harm to you and your partner’s reproductive health.
To learn more about tobacco and tobacco-like products, go to AlbertaQuits.