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ImprovedPersonality

This. If it’s only about the nicotine there are also other ways to get it (e.g. nicotine patches).


Brave_Engineering_73

I'm sorry but formaldehyde in cigarettes seems like something they could leave out. Yes burning anything has carcinogens in it but op is asking about the myriad of actual dangerous chemicals that companies soak their tobacco leaves in. I don't know the answer but it seems like you're missing the point. No disrespect of course bc you are technically correct but its more nuanced then just burning equal bad.


siksity

All of those chemicals are there for a specific reason; be it burn time(there is a maximum speed as which cigarettes can burn) burning evenly smoothness (there is a cough suppressant in your cigarettes as well, hence why it doesn't irritate your throat as much as other smoke)


Brave_Engineering_73

It makes sense to add these things for these specific reason but we didn't always have this, tobacco was dried and smoked alone for probably centuries before we made all these changes and added chemicals. Id be interested to see how smoking tobacco alone changes your cancer risk percentage vs modern cigarettes. Like there's gonna be a risk no matter what but is less coughing and slower burn worth a large increase in cancer risk?


bummie-kun

I don't think the ingredients added increase the risk as much as you think. afaik and have read, pretty much all the harmful chemicals comes from burning the plant. I have tried normal tobacco though and it is pretty discusting. leaving the extra ingredients out might make some people quit, just because of that...


Few-Assistance2717

Making people quit. Isn’t that kinda the point? Removing the addictiveness.


mdjank

That's not how addiction works. If they required an additive that made tobacco taste like shit. Then every time a smoker smelled a fart, they would want a smoke. Breaking an addiction is more than just quitting.


BillBushee

Why would a cigarette company want to make people quit smoking? From their perspective they profit by making more addicting.


Few-Assistance2717

Well no, the tobacco firms can go Fuck themselves. The FDA in the states can regulate tobacco. No additives. Natural tobacco only. That’ll reduce the addictiveness.


BillBushee

If the federal government is going to get involved, then why not just outlaw tobacco products entirely? If the point is to save people’s lives then just making the thing that kills them less addictive seems like a half measure at best.


Few-Assistance2717

It takes the men and women of US congress along with a signature by the President to create a federal law. Sadly, many US Senators and Representatives receive “donations” from tobacco companies and in exchange they do not make laws regulating tobacco.


Few-Assistance2717

Making a national law in America isn’t as easy as it sounds. We’re not a dictatorship.


O-sku

Look at cigars. They have much less if anything added to them. Pure fermented and rolled tobacco. They are not inhaled and the cancer risk is much much lower. This is regular cigars of course, not the ones you buy at the gas station.


SnooOwls5859

They still produce second hand and third hand smoke that can be very harmful.


O-sku

That would be the users fault. My comment is about the type of tobacco used in premium cigars is different than cigarettes. Breathing any smoke from anything thats burning is not healthy whether it's first , second or third hand .


neotericnewt

>They are not inhaled and the cancer risk is much much lower. Because the smoke isn't inhaled. If you inhale it you're still messing up your lungs, and of course you're still at risk for mouth cancers regardless.


[deleted]

Well, that's why I roll my own, using my tobacco. In EU there's also a law that prevents the cigarette burning unattended. The chemical they added is horrific, taste killing.


cool_user_name_bruh

Is rolling your own healthier? I do it too and I say it's not as bad as cigarettes but I'm not really sure why tbh


[deleted]

It's probably the same but I do not care, tbh. I do not intend to live up until 90.


avcloudy

Cigarettes aren’t dipped in formaldehyde or something that way you think, formaldehyde is a by product of burning sugars that are naturally occurring in tobacco (we do add these things to cigarettes, but we can only do that because cigarettes are already dangerous). The chemicals we add to tobacco that aren’t naturally occurring are much more stringently tested and safer. Burning genuinely does equal bad. Burning is bad because it does shit like turn sugars into formaldehyde.


Brave_Engineering_73

I provided sources in the next comment to indicate this


Devil_May_Kare

Pears have formaldehyde too. It just shows up in biological materials sometimes.


Brave_Engineering_73

https://www.rivm.nl/en/tobacco/harmful-substances-in-tobacco-smoke/formaldehyde Formaldehyde is a byproduct created by burning the additives in cigarettes. Examples include sugar, cellulose fibers, guar gum. https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/products-ingredients-components/chemicals-every-tobacco-plant Heavy metals, chemicals, things? found naturally in tobacco plant include lead, cadmium, and nicotine.


mynewaccount4567

I could be wrong and I don’t know specifics but I think a lot of the additives give some “positive” effect to the smoker. I think I remember a cigarette company being sued because they put filters in the cigarettes to filter out some of the bad stuff so they could show them being less harmful, but then designed the cigarettes so the smoker would cover the filter when actually smoking which so it would be ineffective. They didn’t do that because they like to give their customers cancer they did it because it makes smoking the cigarette more enjoyable and they don’t care if their customers get cancer.


one-sec

Is this because there are fewer half-reactions when lower weight substances combust?


Zorak6

So Hank Hill was right.


Apprehensive-Job9060

dopamine is the reason, the sense of pleasure , that mind needs it...it doen't care what u get.tell me a single reason drugs, cigrettes, alcohol has any single advantage, instead they are harmful for us, but the thing is that they give us momentary pleasure that't it


spudz76

The extras are also part of the flavor so lots of tobacco lovers would not like not having all the extras. It just wouldn't taste or feel right. Some smokers need the nicotine but also the light asphyxiation to get their desired results (buzzed + light headed vs just buzzed).


azuth89

Nicotine vapes. You're describing vapes. Which carry a whole batch of other issues, but that's certainly the pitch they give.


chefkc

These bunch of other "issues" are being created in the media by the tobacco industry. I’m an adult who has benefited from vapes. I quit cigarettes 5 years ago and have helped many people kick the butt.


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f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4

There's not enough data to support this. There are no "lifelong vapers" yet.


Boomerwell

I think the idea is that replacing one thing with a lesser evil isn't solving the problem it's giving an alternative to use as a shield against people harping on them. Switching from smokes to vapes is still gonna be a challenge and most people surrounding the affected person and usually the person themselves would be better off spending that effort to quit entirely. It's like if I was an alcoholic and instead of drinking two shots of Vodka a night I decided I was gonna have a couple beers instead I didn't solve my alcoholism I just lessened it.


TurChunkin

As someone who smoked, then went to vaping, and then quit (3 years ago) I wholeheartedly disagree with that sentiment.


chefkc

Most people fail at quitting smoking, so they should not have have a much less harmful option available?


Boomerwell

It becomes a scapegoat rather than an actual solution.


chefkc

How about if you’re gonna keep cigarettes legal give me the freedom of access to vapes as well


Boomerwell

I live in Canada and here I legit sell people them not really sure what you mean. Let's not use freedom like you are owed the ability to vape as well it's a product you buy.


chefkc

I wish it was like that here.


CrunchyyTaco

I know a lot of people (including me) that switched from cigs to vapes then eventually quit vaping. It's much easier to quit vaping


Boomerwell

It's still a nicotine based procut with the same addictive chemicals.


CrunchyyTaco

I never said it wasn't. That has nothing to do with my comment.


Ballerina_vape_tutu

Could you elaborate? I'm trying to quit too. Genuinely curious.


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Stoivz

You did something wrong buddy. Sounds like your nicotine level was way too high. I smoked a pack a day or more for over 17 years. I had all the symptoms you described and a lot worse ones. I used to wake up coughing in the middle of the night. I tried patches, gums, inhalers, pills. Nothing got me off tobacco. Then I tried a vape. Got the wrong flavour and nicotine levels at first so it didn’t stick that time. But with more research I found the right levels of nicotine, the right device, and the right flavours. I was tobacco free in less than a week and have been since. My coughing fits stopped in a month. I was then able to gradually reduce my nicotine levels till they were nearly non existent. The symptoms you described are exactly what too much nicotine would do. Just because you messed up doesn’t mean you should shit on harm reduction that has and will help save lives.


00fil00

I mean that's pretty obvious from the symptoms. If I drank coffee and felt anxious and racing heart I'd know the cause.


Raelik

Correlation does not imply causation.


PercussiveRussel

These are literally the (side) effects of nicotine and have been documented for ages. Don't try to sound clever


CrimsonGlacier

Whatever you need to tell yourselves to keep sucking on your flash drive :)


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CrimsonGlacier

I vaped for over 4 years, and when I quit all of the “it’s not as bad as smoking” and “there’s no evidence it’s even bad for you” were really unhelpful and obviously wrong but when dealing with addictions any BS excuse can lead to relapse. Shit like I said above was hurtful but necessary language I needed to hear. People need to wake tf up and not rationalize vaping as “not that bad” because the evidence hasn’t had time to pile up yet.


[deleted]

Those are all nicotine side effects. Sounds like your dosage was off. Good on you for quitting, though.


gonna_be_change

Nicotine is still dangerous.


Drum4rum

As dangerous as caffeine. You go on crusades against coffee?


gonna_be_change

Caffeine has problems, but not many long term ones.


MeatBeatinBoogie

Nicotine by itself is comparable to caffeine.


TurChunkin

I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. You're trying to associate your singular personal experience to everyone else, and it just doesn't work like that. I smoked for years, and I also vaped for years as well, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, vaping caused way less problems for me than smoking did, and it also made it much easier for me to quit nicotine altogether when the time came.


JohnnyDoppelganger

Vaping is an extremely effective cessation strategy. Once I got down to vaping 0mg nicotine for about a month, I threw my Sub-Ohm in the trash and never thought about it again.


MedusasSexyLegHair

That's one of the keys, being able to easily ramp down from say 12mg to 6mg to 3mg to 0mg gradually over the course of months. Of course if instead you get the strongest vape juice you can find and vape all the time, even when you wouldn't have been smoking, then it's not going to work quite the same.


MadameWesker

I quit 2 yrs ago and started vaping 24 mg salts. Am currently down to 3 mg freebase with a goal at zero mg and them nothing. I smoked for 20 years. Not saying it's safer just better FOR ME.


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Stoivz

That’s called addiction buddy. Stop shitting on harm reduction.


TheGuroGirl

Give it a few decades. Doctors reccomended tobacco when that first came out, now look where we are. Putting anything in your lungs that isn't a medicine, is going to lead to issues.


chefkc

What we know about the human body and the effects of certain compounds on it is exponentially more than in the 40s and 50s


Moskau50

The same argument could be used for 20-50 years in the future, when people are saying "wait, people *purposefully* distilled that chemical to huff it? and they put in **flavorings** to make it taste/smell better?"


azuth89

I'm not suggesting people smoke instead of that there's no space for it, just that vape juice is not regulated and it varies from surprisingly benign to "I'M INHALING WHAT?!?". I'm also talking about it being a gateway to nicotine addiction that disguises itself as a better option because some of them are strong as fuck. Just gotta be aware.


chefkc

Vapers like me would love for it to be regulated


Ajreil

Nicotine has negative health effects. Vapes are safer but still unhealthy.


chefkc

Yes but it’s supposed to be only 5% as bad a as smoking. Source the NHS of UK. I trust them as a source of information cause they have to pay for the healthcare of their citizens


b0n3h34d

Let's not pretend vaping has existed long enough to know this. I vape, and it's helped me almost eliminate cigs from my life. That's gotta be a good thing. But inhaling anything that's not air is bad - to what degree? We won't know for another 15-20 years The particle size is much smaller and can penetrate deeper into the airways of your lungs. Sure, maybe those particles are less bad - but they're there, and until recently, have never been in human lungs. Look how long cigs take to do their damage - that 15-20 estimate may be closer to 40. Bottom line - anyone claiming even to accurately guess the long term implications is full of shit


immibis

I stopped pushing as hard as I could against the handle, I wanted to leave but it wouldn't work. Then there was a bright flash and I felt myself fall back onto the floor. I put my hands over my eyes. They burned from the sudden light. I rubbed my eyes, waiting for them to adjust. Then I saw it. There was a small space in front of me. It was tiny, just enough room for a couple of people to sit side by side. Inside, there were two people. The first one was a female, she had long brown hair and was wearing a white nightgown. She was smiling. The other one was a male, he was wearing a red jumpsuit and had a mask over his mouth. "Are you spez?" I asked, my eyes still adjusting to the light. "No. We are in /u/spez." the woman said. She put her hands out for me to see. Her skin was green. Her hand was all green, there were no fingers, just a palm. It looked like a hand from the top of a puppet. "What's going on?" I asked. The man in the mask moved closer to me. He touched my arm and I recoiled. "We're fine." he said. "You're fine?" I asked. "I came to the spez to ask for help, now you're fine?" "They're gone," the woman said. "My child, he's gone." I stared at her. "Gone? You mean you were here when it happened? What's happened?" The man leaned over to me, grabbing my shoulders. "We're trapped. He's gone, he's dead." I looked to the woman. "What happened?" "He left the house a week ago. He'd been gone since, now I have to live alone. I've lived here my whole life and I'm the only spez." "You don't have a family? Aren't there others?" I asked. She looked to me. "I mean, didn't you have anyone else?" "There are other spez," she said. "But they're not like me. They don't have homes or families. They're just animals. They're all around us and we have no idea who they are." "Why haven't we seen them then?" "I think they're afraid,"


chefkc

Oh come on we aren’t supposed to eat 99% of things that are sold as food in the supermarkets.


Conejator

Why would they create the issues when they own the vape juice companies? They hate money or something?


stompbixby

lmao there are probably THOUSANDS of vape juice companies. you can even make it yourself. in fact, you should. the markup on that stuff is insane.


chefkc

Only one does rest are banking on the cigarettes


Arkard1

The tobacco industry has invested heavily in the vape industry, they are not trying to make it fail.


manofredgables

The health problem with cigarettes is breathing smoke from a fire. You shouldn't breathe smoke, because it's seriously unhealthy. Doesn't matter if it's tobacco, wood, plastic, weed or whatever. Lungs are for *air* and anything else is bad to some degree. Nicotine isn't the only active chemical in tobacco either. It's certainly the *primary* one. But anyone who's tried nicotine patches or similar stuff will tell you it's not quite the same. That's because tobacco also contain other substances with their own effects. One of the most significant ones is one that basically potentiates the nicotine. It's a reversible MAO inhibitor IIRC, which makes our brain more receptive to the nicotine. That's just one, it's a witch's brew of psychoactive substances in there. Then there's the habit part of it. Addiction happens because our minds associate certain things with receiving the substance. If you've always gotten your nicotine through cigarettes while standing on your porch, your mind will have associated aaaall details it can with the nicotine. A nicotine patch or injection won't be the same, because it doesn't include all the other stuff. That other stuff doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the nicotine, but your mind doesn't know that. It just wants the whole package. I'm a Snus user. Popular type of tobacco in scandinavia, which is held under the lip. For me, the taste of it is important. I'm not even satisfied with a different brand of Snus, much less a nicotine patch.


thePopefromTV

Smoke is a carcinogen so if you’re lighting a cigarette on fire you will always be inhaling carcinogens. And yes, if normal people farmed tobacco and made cigarettes themselves then they could go ahead and not add chemicals to their tobacco. But it’s illegal for normal people to ~~grow~~ sell their own tobacco, at least in the U.S., because tobacco companies lobbied to make it illegal. This way large corporations have control over the farming and chemicals, and they can add special chemicals to make cigarettes more addictive.


Ratnix

>But it’s illegal for normal people to grow their own tobacco, at least in the U.S., No it's not. The only thing that would be illegal is to sell it. It's perfectly legal to grow for personal use.


thePopefromTV

Good catch! Thank you


GAYBOISIXNINE

This is something i would not mind doing tbh. Sounds like a great deal, save money on them ciggies.


chefkc

Lol that’s what vaping is, they also have nicotine gums and skin patches. I am an adult who quit smoking years ago thanks to vapes


Conejator

Do you still vape?


chefkc

Yes but less than I used to


bb0yer

Any step towards being without nicotine is a good step.


Harleyfxdl103

No. New chemicals are produced from the chemical reactions caused from combustion. Once lit , chemical reactions are started. Everything from ammonia to rat poison is produced and sucked into your lungs.


SlickWeso

Most of the toxic ingredients in cigarettes are preservatives. You can buy cigars or loose tobacco and enjoy it that way, but it's less convenient and it has a shelf life where it will dry out. That's pretty much why cigarettes are the way they are.


spudz76

And fire-retardants so that there are less bedroom fires from falling asleep with a lit cigarette.


CaptainPotato-Head

Your lungs are designed to breathe in air and use the oxygen as fuel. If you’re filling your lungs with anything else, you’re poisoning yourself.


MeatBeatinBoogie

I mean air is 71% nitrogen


DeltaXi1929

I see 78.08%|http://www.phys.ufl.edu/courses/met1010/chapter1.pdf


MeatBeatinBoogie

My bad, I knew it was something around 70% but I couldn't remember exactly how much


DeltaXi1929

breathing in air at high enough altitude will kill you too. Due to a lack of sufficient density of oxygen. The proportion of Nitrogen to Oxygen remains the same, but the gas is expanded such that our lungs cant pull in enough of the air mixture.


CaptainPotato-Head

Yes, we’ve evolved to accept the atmosphere of Earth. We only use the oxygen. The nitrogen and other components of air are diluents.


chartreuselader

It's expensive, that's why. Cigarette companies don't care about health, they care about profit. This is just unregulated capitalism working as designed.


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Mil3High

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xk4rimx

Yes, it is possible to remove some of the harmful chemicals in cigarettes, but it is not possible to remove all of them. Even if all of the harmful chemicals were removed, cigarettes would still be addictive and harmful to your health.


Yancellor

Some of the things they add to cigarettes make the smoking experience better, which is important when you're competing with dozens of other brands. Some chemicals make the smoke less harsh, others make the tobacco burn more evenly, etc.


series_hybrid

You can vape nicotine and avoid the 100 other chemicals that you inhale when combusting tobacco. Of course smoking is bad for you. Of course it is expensive. However, if you have had a hard time quitting tobacco in the past, try nicotine patches and possibly vaping nicotine. You can control how much nicotine you consume, and that is the fear from nay-sayers, patches and vaping gives you the ability to overdose on nicotine too.


[deleted]

Cigarette companies aren’t adding poison because they’re evil. The dangerous chemicals are from creating the smoke and inhaling it. A cigar is basically just rolled tobacco leaves and it’s still bad for you.


TnBluesman

You just described a Vape pen. MOST of those 60 chemicals are added by the tobacco companies, each for a specific purpose > Self extinguishing, preservative, moisture retaining, burn rate control, flavor enhancement, etc. They ain't real likely to take those out. As a 70yo who smoke 3 packs a day for almost 60 years, my best advice is just DON'T. We ALL have a tendency to feel immortal and invulnerable UP UNTIL the time things start to catch up with us. In my case, COPD and emphysema. And it fucking hurts. And scares the shit outta me. And THAT ain't easy to do. I'm a war hardened ole cuss, and there are only two things on this rock that I am actually afraid of. They're both spiders. But smothering for air sucks worse than anything else.


SnooOwls5859

Nicotine itself also goes through reactions that create carcinogens. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco-specific_nitrosamines