Well, what Fort Minor concealed from us (in the song lyrics) is the fact that cigarette smoking isn’t all that cool; contrary to what has been fed to us, courtesy pop culture and media. That brooding puff might seem to be cool to some, but it comes with health hazards; yes, you’re basically smoking rat poison and car exhaust!

“It’s just like a cigarette, it’s something that I do…….I don’t want the truth, I want to feel fucking cool!”

A cigarette has over 7000 chemicals in it and at least 69 of them are cancer causing or carcinogenic. 

Basically, here’s what you’re inhaling:

1. Hydrogen Cyanide

That rich whiff of smoke that you exhale is laden with Hydrogen Cyanide. Yes, the same compound that is found in rat poison!

Ministry of Type

2. Tar

The tar and the nicotine that you breathe in, with every puff, is the same black stuff that is used to cover roads with. 

Hilson’s Construction

3. Menthol flavoured? You mean, piss flavoured.

In order to ‘enhance’ the ‘flavour’, manufacturers add urea to the cigarette stick. Yes, urea, the main component of your urine is used to flavour cigarettes. 

Berita Beurita

4. Whale puke

Cigarette makers add ‘ambergris’ to smokes. Ambergris is otherwise known as whale vomit – a fatty waxy blob that is puked out onto beaches. It is used to ‘fix’ the taste and smell of a cigarette. 

Bigmir

5. DDT

This banned insecticide is added to your favourite brand of cigarettes. Apparently, DDT finds its way into cigarettes because it is used in tobacco plantations. 

Soul Water Body

6. Toluene

Toluene, used to manufacture paint, is found in car exhausts and also in cigarettes. 

BusinessGreen

7. Cadmium

This toxic heavy metal (and I don’t mean Black Sabbath) is present in high levels in cigarette smoke. Did I tell you cadmium is also an active compound used in car batteries? Imagine all that you’re inhaling!

Greenmax Battery

8. Carbon monoxide

This is of common knowledge. You are basically inhaling poison with every puff of that rich Davidoff smoke!

Signalmik

9. Lead

The same thing that goes in car batteries, pewters and fusible alloys, is the same thing that is smoked directly into your lungs! Lead is highly toxic and causes severe brain damage.

China-Direct-Buy

10. Naphthalene

Naphthalene – the component used in mothballs as fumigant is what you inhale (often with a false sense of accomplishment)

Smellout

Time to kick the butt?

Feature image source: Blogspot