10 Things You’re Actually Smoking When You Light Up A Cigarette

When you order a cookie cake, you're just eating a cookie shaped like a cake. But when you smoke a cigarette, you're not just smoking tobacco. Learn more about what you’re putting in your body at THE FACTS NOW.

1. Nail Polish Remover

fotoarts / Getty Images

Acetone, present in both first-hand and secondhand cigarette smoke, is a highly flammable liquid that is also in nail polish remover. Ever wonder why the person doing your manicure is wearing a mask that covers her nose and mouth?

2. Batteries

Nneirda / Getty Images

Cadmium, a highly toxic heavy metal, is commonly used to make batteries due to its slow corrosion. Unfortunately, filling your body with cadmium doesn’t prolong your life the way it does rechargeable batteries.

3. Rat Poison

Via cheezburger.com

Arsenic is a classified carcinogen that is used in pesticides, aka rat poison and insect repellent. You know, 'cause you gotta keep all those bugs out of your lungs.

4. Gasoline

Thinkstock

Volcanoes and forest fires are a natural source of benzene, which can also be found in gasoline. Another classified cancer-causing agent, benzene is linked specifically to leukemia and other blood cancers. 50% of the U.S. national exposure to benzene is linked to cigarette smoke.

5. Embalming Fluid

Cary Wolinsky / Getty Images

Formaldehyde, a toxin found in cigarette smoke, is also used to preserve dead bodies. If only it also preserved your lungs, amiright?

6. Car Exhaust Fumes

Thinkstock

Released in car exhaust fumes and other internal combustion engines, carbon monoxide is poisonous, odorless, and — thankfully — tasteless, since it's also released when the tobacco in your cigarette is burned and inhaled.

7. Mothballs

Via cheezburger.com

The product of crude oil and coal tar, naphthalene is found in both cigarette smoke and mothballs.

8. Tar

NOAA's National Ocean Services (CC BY http://2.0) / Via flic.kr

Tar — a sticky, black substance — is also inhaled when you smoke a cigarette. Cigarette smoke damages the cilia of your lungs, which paves a nice little path for more tar to penetrate further and cause even more damage. Tar: making pathways everywhere it goes.

9. Rubber

Henrik Sorensen / Getty Images

Another surprise ingredient of cigarette smoke is 1,3-Butadiene, an ingredient used to make rubber. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "burn rubber."

10. Household Cleaners

BuzzFeed

Ammonia, commonly found in household cleaning products, is also added to tobacco to make the nicotine stronger so smokers become more addicted. If only cleaning were more addictive, maybe you'd actually dust once in a while.

Oh, and ammonia… is also found in dog pee. Is ignorance bliss? Know the facts. Visit THE FACTS NOW for the truth about smoking.