As cancer is not caused by nicotine, but by chemicals – carcinogens, released by a cigarette during combustion, a science department of a well-known newspaper found out what would happen if the tobacco is heated up, but will not burn, and describes a relatively safe method of smoking, which was invented by modern science at the present moment.
“Smoking is dangerous to your health”, “Cigarettes cause cancer”, “Smoking kills” – all these phrases are well known to any modern person, regardless of the fact whether he/she smokes or not.
The World Health Organization taook decision that the warning about the dangers of smoking and frightening photos of smoker’s lungs occupied no less than 30% of the place of a pack of cigarettes, but, in practice, many people continue to smoke, being perfectly conscious of all the danger of their actions.
The question about the dangers of smoking for a long time is indubitable – the British Organization Cancer Research in UK states that smoking is a cause of lung cancer in 86% of cases, making up 19% of all cancer cases. However, cancer is not caused by nicotine – an alkaloid contained in tobacco and addiction forming substance.
Malignant tumors provoke the development of other substances and chemicals that are released by the tobacco smoldering – their total number, according to various estimates, are ranging from 6 to 9 thousand.
The refusal of smokers to quit cigarettes because of the danger of smoking has forced doctors to step back a little ouy of the position «quit or die», which means to absolutely get rid smoking out of life, otherwise the consequinces could be very dramatic”: lately more and more researchers are studying the issue how to reduce the amount of carcinogens released by a cigarette, while retaining its ability to deliver nicotine to smoker’s organism and tobacco companies are seeking for ways to make smoking as less harmful as possible.
What is a cigarette made of?
A traditional cigarette during smoking can be divided into three zones: a zone of smoldering, a zone of pyrolysis and a zone of distillation. Zone of smoldering – this is a section adjacent directly to the smoldering end of the cigarette; its temperature can exceed 700ºC.
It is followed by a zone of pyrolysis, where the temperature ranges from about 400 to 700ºC. It is this section of the cigarette, which is called a “chemical factory” by researchers – here in the result there were caused chemical reactions because of high temperature and there formed harmful substances that eventually cause cancer.