In the late ’20s, scientists already knew that tobacco smoke contains many hazardous chemical compounds: carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, formaldehyde and pyridine (an ingredient of industrial solvents).
Today, the number of chemical compounds identified in cigarette stands at 4,000, out of which at least 100 were classified as hazardous to human health. On the list of harmful ingredients are substances ranging from arsenic to toluene.
Few people know that the most dangerous elements in cigarettes are polonium-210, uranium-235 and uranium-238, isotope rather found in nuclear reactors. Few people know that the cigarette is one of the main sources of exposure to radiation.
The reason the world does not know it is that cigarette manufacturers have tried to hide this. In the 60s, tobacco companies have identified this problem, but have studied it in secret and didn’t make public the discovery that cigarettes contain radioactive substances.
This fact ensued from documents released during the lawsuit ended in 1998, when a settlement was entered between the Attorneys General of 46 states and 4 tobacco manufacturers, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and Lorillard. The tobacco manufacturers agreed to pay a minimum 0f $206 billion in the first 25 years of the agreement.
An analysis of documents obtained during the lawsuit shows that tobacco radioactivity was discovered in 1959 by tobacco companies, which calculated the amount of ionizing alpha particles absorbed by a long-term smoker.
Studies by researchers at UCLA identify a more serious problem: cigarette manufacturers not only have identified that their product was contaminated with polonium-210, but, even though they could remedy this problem, they chose not to.
Radioactive elements are naturally in the Earth’s crust, which means that they are found in soils where different plants grow, including tobacco. In the case of tobacco, the effect is amplified by the fact that the fertilizer used for this plant are rich in phosphates mixtures including the mineral apatite. This mineral attracts the radioactive elements. U.S. Environmental Agency explains: “when phosphate fertilizer is spread on tobacco plantations year after year, the concentration of lead-210 and polonium-210 in the soil increases.” When the soil is stirred at planting or when plowing, the radioactive particles go up in the air and attach to the dust. Returning to the ground, these particles are captured by sticky leaves of the tobacco plant.
These radioactive elements can be removed by washing the plant with acid. Court documents show that cigarette manufacturers have refused to do so, fearing it would reduce the amount of nicotine and make their product less addictive therefore affecting company profits. Calculations performed by researchers at UCLA based on internal data from tobacco companies show that alpha radiation cause 120-138 cancer deaths for every 1,000 smokers.
Polonium-210 is 5,000 times more radioactive than radium. Like radium, it emits alpha particles, which are not necessarily dangerous outside the body because they can not penetrate the skin. Inside the body, alpha particles cause serious injury. They travel from the lungs throughout the body, irradiating tissue as it moves. Polonium-210 could end up in the bone, destroying it and causing various blood disorders. Also, chronic diseases caused by radiation can lead to cancer.
UCLA researchers concluded that “the evidence that radioactive elements in tobacco lead to cancer and deaths are strong enough to recommend the removal of these substances in tobacco”.
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