10 Fascinating Facts About Smoking

1. Cigarette advertisements have been banned from television since 1970, when President Nixon signed the law banning ads on television and requiring the Surgeon General’s warnings. The last day of any cigarette ads appearing on television was January 1, 1971 to allow tobacco companies to participate in one last, huge advertising event, New Year’s Day football games.

2. The nicotine content in several major brands has risen. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Health Department revealed that between 1997 and 2005 the amount of nicotine in Camel, Newport, and Doral cigarettes may have increased by as much as 11 percent

3. Nicotine reaches the brain 7-10 seconds after smoke is inhaled. It has been found in every part of the body and in breast milk.

4. Tobacco companies were forced to release 40-million pages of documents describing the addictive nature of nicotine and the health effects of smoking. The CEO’s of the seven largest tobacco companies swore under oath, and colluded to agreeing to do so, that nicotine was not addictive in order to protect their rights to sell and market cigarettes freely. This act of cowardice among “giants” of the industry earned them the nickname “the seven dwarfs.”

5. American tobacco companies make more money selling cigarettes oversees than they do in the USA.

6. Cigarettes that used to be marketed as “lite” are manufactured with air holes around the filter to aerate the smoke as it is drawn in. Many smokers have subconsciousy learned to cover these holes with their fingers or their lips to get a stronger hit.

7. Or…smokers often draw on ‘lite” and menthol cigarettes harder and longer than regular cigarettes; causing the same amount of nicotine to be consumed and possibly carcinogens to be drawn deeper within the lungs.

8. Smokers generally report a variety of after-effects; such as calmness, relaxation, alertness, stimulation, concentration and many others. In fact, smoking will produce a different effect in each individual depending on ‘what they expect to get’; turning the cigarette into the worlds most popular placebo (satisfying the brains hunger for nicotine being the only ‘relaxing’ factor). The smoker will then use these expectations as a means to continue the habit.

9. Researchers that have studied conditioning and addiction are hard pressed to find a more addictive delivery system for nicotine than smoking. The rapid reinforcement and repeated small doses make smokers learn to expect a release of dopamine more efficiently than any other way of administering the same amount of nicotine.

10. The only way to quit smoking, once addicted, is to stop smoking for one day and repeat the processon the next day; this is deceptively hard.