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| The first kind of tar that a lot of people think of is what is used to patch roads. No, we don’t smoke that kind of tar. The kind of tar that is found in cigarettes is different, but not all that different. It is a black, gummy substance formed when you inhale smoke into your lungs. The tar is actually tiny particles of burned tobacco particulates. The truth is that we don’t really know exactly what makes up tar, because there are so many particles, chemicals, and compounds that are in tobacco and which are created when tobacco is burned.
Many people wonder how tar affects your body and health, and the answer to that is both simple and complex at the same time. On the simple side, we know that tar is one of the main causes of the most serious diseases and conditions that result from smoking tobacco. We also know that tobacco smoke contains 69 known carcinogens and hundreds of suspected carcinogens and otherwise harmful chemicals. Tar is kind of like the goopy residue of tobacco smoke. Attempting to Limit Tar Because of how tar affects your body and health, even cigarette companies try to limit the amount of tar that smokers inhale. The filters on cigarettes are specifically there to catch the tar as it passes through. And they do filter out some tar. Unfortunately, as long as you are inhaling smoke, you are inhaling tar. So-called low tar cigarettes are not giving smokers much of a better option. You still inhale smoke, and therefore you will still have tar collecting in your lungs. Effects of Tar on the Body When tar is inhaled, it irritates every place that the smoke passes through on it’s way to the lungs. These delicate tissues include the lining of the bronchial tubes, the bronchioles, and the air sacs and passages that make up the lungs. When tar is present, these delicate tissues become inflamed and carcinogens come into contact with the cells, causing mutations and leading to cancer. 90% of lung cancer cases in the world can be attributed to smoking or to second hand smoke. Besides cancer, there are a number of other diseases that tar can cause or exacerbate. Bronchitis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, heart disease, and other related infections such as pneumonia can all be attributed to tar and smoking cigarettes. Besides cancer, heart disease and stroke are the most common ways that smoking causes death in smokers. Tar in the blood stream changes the way cholesterol acts in the blood and makes it more likely that plaques will form on the walls of arteries. These are just the direct effects that we understand clearly. There is also plenty of evidence to suggest that tar and cigarette smoking seriously degrades the functioning of the immune system, leaving room for all kinds of other disease and conditions which the body would normally be able to protect itself from. For these reasons, we advise you to take a long, hard look at the various e-cigarette brands listed on our home page. |
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