Health Topicssubstance use-disorderquit smokingWhat Chemicals Are in Your Cigarette?

What Chemicals Are in Your Cigarette?

It's not just nicotine. You may be shocked to learn what else you're inhaling when you smoke.

woman pugging on a cigarette
Written by Michael Gollust. Medically reviewed in May 2023 by Mark Arredondo, MD.

Updated on March 1, 2024.

In addition to highly addictive nicotine, cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals. Here's what you're inhaling with each puff:

  • Arsenic (also found in rat poison)
  • Ammonia (a poison; present in many household cleaners)
  • Acetone (also found in fingernail-polish remover)
  • Benzene (also used as an industrial solvent and found in car exhaust)
  • Carbon monoxide (also found in car exhaust-pipe fumes)
  • Cadmium (used in rechargeable batteries)
  • Cyanide (a poison used in gas chambers)
  • DDT (an insecticide)
  • Formaldehyde (also found in embalming fluid)
  • Lead (a poison that's been removed from nearly all paints)
  • Mercury (a highly poisonous substance; easily absorbed through respiration)
  • Nickel (also poisonous; a known cancer-causing agent)
  • Hydrogen cyanide (a deadly poison used in gas chambers)
  • Hydrogen sulfide (sewer gas)
  • Polonium-210 (a radioactive substance)
  • More than 50 cancer-causing agents (carcinogens)

And, of course, nicotine, which isn't just addictive, it's a natural insecticide (it protects the tobacco plant from bugs). In its pure form, nicotine is a deadly poison. One drop could kill a human in minutes.

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