Radiation in cigarettes

[LadyPamela]

Don't know if this has been posted before, I came across it yesterday in this article.

http://www.oasas.state.ny.us/admed/documents/TobaccoMyths.pdf

MYTH 2: Nicotine is carcinogenic.
TRUTH[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]: Nicotine has not been proven to cause cancer. There are more than 4,000 other chemicals in cigarette smoke, many of which are known to cause cancer, such as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the nitrosamines. Cigarettes deliver high doses of radiation to the user, doses so high that there is more natural radiation in cigarettes than in the Chernobyl fallout, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history (the amount of radioactive material left on plants by Chernobyl pales in comparison with the radium and polonium found naturally in tobacco).

1. Constantin Papastefanou found that tobacco plants contain up to 1,000 times more radioactive radium and polonium than the radioactive cesium fallout from Chernobyl left on plants.
2. "Many scientists believe that cancer deaths among smokers are due to the radioactive content of tobacco leaves and not to nicotine and tar," according to Papastefanou, a researcher at the Atomic and Nuclear Physics Laboratory at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Papastefanou, C. (2007) Radiation dose from cigarette tobacco. [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Radiation Protection Dosimetry, [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]123(1): 68-73; doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncl033.
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[Greeneyeddevil]

omg! that is scary! i knew the analogs were bad for me but had no clue i was getting radiation in there too. so glad that i'm not putting that crap in my body anymore.

 

[smc]

His choice of wording ("more natural radiation") could be construed as tobacco contains polonium/radium naturally. It is a product of the phosphate fertilizers they use. He should have said "more naturally occurring radiation".

For over 40 years, researchers and tobacco corporations have known that cigarettes contain radionuclides(1). The contamination is sourced in naturally occurring radioactive radon gas(2) which is absorbed and trapped in apatite rock(3). Apatite, or phosphate rock, is mined for the purpose of formulating the phosphate portion of most chemical fertilizers(4). Polonium releases ionizing alpha radiation which is 20 times more harmful than either beta or gamma radiation when exposed to internal organs(5).

source - There are other 'more reliable looking' sources. If I can find the bookmark from a medial journal I will post it.

 

[umop apisdn]

THIS is the exact reason I quit analogs.
I saw a figure a while back, no idea where the source is, but it wasn't too hard to stumble upon, that said 3 packs of cigarettes gives you the same radiation dose as 2 chest x-rays.

It makes sense that no one gets acute radiation poisoning from analogs, but it does account for the cancer risk.

Another thing to chew on... why would tobacco increase the chance for kidney/bladder cancer? TSNAs and the other carcinogens present are broken down before they reach your kidney. The heavy metals in tobacco like to hang out in your body for a little longer and are passed through your urinary tract intact. Nothing's proven for the risk there, but I'll let you come to your own conclusion...