Tobacco - The stuff noone told you about

I love smoking, its really nice except for the cancer and dying part.

Still, this post is not about telling you not to smoke, this post is a fucking huge wall of text teaching you things you didn't know about Tobacco!

Tobacco is a misunderstood sacrament. It's not the nicotine you have to worry about, it's not whether your cigarette has a filter or not. These are illusive marketing ploys. miss-direction. The real concern is the added chemical poisons and radioactivity.

This is the kind of post that needs an index... so these are the topics i will talk about

• Nicotine helps memory, alzheimers, & cognitive degradation
• The tobacco species you smoke is not very good and there are other alternatives
• Nicotine is not the only good stuff, did you know about Harmalas?
• Freebase Nicotine
• Did you know you are a glue smoker?
• Radioactive Tobacco is common Tobacco
• Tobacco Shamanism
• E-Cigarettes
• General Industrial Tobacco Additives
• Some more Curiositys

Nicotine helps memory, alzheimers, & cognitive degradation

Findings from both human and animal studies have indicated that acute administration of nicotine can improve cognitive performance (particularly tasks that require attention), short-term episodic memory and prospective memory task performance. This makes my nasty habit seem like a good choice while studying

Chronic usage of low-dose nicotine in animals has been found to increase the number of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and improve performance on learning and memory tasks, this discovery was only made at the beginning of the 1990s; the connection between the phenomenon and the addiction displayed by tobacco users seems obvious, but has yet to be explored in detail

Short-term nicotine treatment, utilising nicotine skin patches, have shown that it may be possible to improve cognitive performance in a variety of groups such as normal non-smoking adults, Alzheimer’s disease patients, schizophrenics, and adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Similarly, evidence suggests that smoking improves visuospatial working memory impairments in schizophrenic patients, possible explaining the high rate of tobacco smoking found in people with schizophrenia. However, evidence suggests that low doses of nicotine facilitate memory and high doses have no significant effect.

Learn more

The tobacco species you smoke is not very good and there are other alternatives

Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) is another species of tobacco which is sometimes available. Not possessed and adulterated by corporate entities. This tobacco gives a similar buzz to n. rustica (mapacho) and was considered one of the strongest domestic tobacco species by native americans. It contains Anabasine, an analog of nicotine. Other forms of administration than smoking, however, would be ill-advised with this species; As Anabasine is more potent than nicotine and will reach toxic levels in the body faster/with lower quantities. Tree Tobacco, tho, is safe for smoking.

Mapacho Tobacco aka Shamanic Tobacco, Sacred Tobacco, Tobacco Negra (Nicotiana rustica) contains up to 18x more nicotine (but freebased nicotine is not added in) and is much higher in harmalas than regular tobacco which balances the effects. This species is much more potent, chemically complex, and potentially hallucinogenic than the commercial grades of Nicotiana tabacum available today.

Nicotine is not the only good stuff, did you know about Harmalas?

It also must be recognized that nicotine is by no means the only bioactive substance in the tobacco leaf. Recently alkaloids of the harmala group, harman and norharman, have been isolated from cured commercial tobaccos and their smoke. They constitute a chemical group of beta-carbolines, which include harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine, and 6-methoxy harmine, all with hallucinogenic properties. While to date no native varieties of tobacco have been analyzed for these substances, it is a reasonable supposition that their composition may vary widely, depending upon the variety and growth, and that some of the native-grown tobaccos may contain a relatively high concentration of them.

Harmalas have anti-depressant effects, anti-tumor properties, and are NMDA antagonists which help prevent addictions. NMDA antagonists also resensitize cells to dopamine. So NMDA antagonists have "brain-resetting" effects.

Freebase Nicotine

"In the 1990s, the courts demanded the release of tobacco company documents, which are now available. There's much about converting more nicotine into the freebase form to get more nicotine into the smoke and so that the nicotine in the smoke becomes more available," says Pankow.

Pankow and his team recently compared the levels of free-base nicotine found in the most common brands of American cigarettes (see "Percent Free Base Nicotine.." in the bibliography). They found that some -- including the famously popular Marlboro -- contain 10 to 20 times higher percentages of free-base nicotine than other brands. But the brand with the most free-base nicotine? The "Natural American Spirit" cigarette, marketed here as "100% Chemical Additive-Free Tobacco." American Spirit cigarettes contain 36 percent free-base nicotine, compared with 9.6 percent in a Marlboro, 2.7 percent in a Camel, and 6.2 percent in a Winston.

http://whyfiles.org/183smoking/2.html

Did you know you are a glue smoker?

The federal government passed a law in 2004 mandating that cigarettes self extinguish. To accomplish this. cigarette manufacturers now put "ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer" (carpet glue) adhesive into the paper of the cigarettes. The result is that cigarette smokers are now inhaling burning glue. According to a Harvard Study, the self extinguishing cigarettes produce 13.9% more Naphthalene and 11.4% more carbon monoxide than cigarettes made without the glue. Naphthalene is a substance used to make moth balls and in quantity, causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, confusion, anemia, jaundice, convulsions and coma

Information from www.xaminer.com/naphthalene

By making your own cigarettes.you avoid smoking "carpet glue", Naphthalene.

http://www.examiner.com/article/are-the-new-fsc-fire-safe-cigarettes-making-smokers-sicker-than-ever

Radioactive Tobacco is common Tobacco

Common ingredients added to cigarettes, such as aluminum oxide, potassium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, polyvinyl acetate, and hundreds others, make up approximately 10 percent of the smokable matter. During combustion a cigarette emits over 7000 substances, most of which are toxic....

Some of these substances are even radioactive, making cigarettes the largest single source of radiation in the daily life of an average smoker. According to one study, the average smoker absorbs the equivalent of the radiation dosages from 250 chest X-rays per year.

Polonium-210 in tobacco contributes to many of the cases of lung cancer worldwide. Most of this polonium is derived from lead-210 deposited on tobacco leaves from the atmosphere; the lead-210 is a product of radon-222 gas, much of which appears to originate from the decay of radium-226 from fertilizers applied to the tobacco soils.

The presence of polonium in tobacco smoke has been known since the early 1960s. Some of the world's biggest tobacco firms researched ways to remove the substance—to no avail—over a 40-year period but never published the results

Polonium 210 and lead-210 accumulate for decades in the lungs of smokers. Sticky tar in the tobacco builds up in the small air passageways in the lungs (sensitive tissues of the bronchioles) and radioactive substances get trapped. Over time, these substances cause localized radiation doses and can lead to lung cancer. CDC studies show that smoking causes 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women and 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men.

Polonium-210 (HALF life is about 138 days); Lead-210 (HALF life = 22.3 years) 

"Tobacco fields in the U.S. have been fertilized with the radioactive

haillings from uranium mines, resulting in a tremendous increase in the

incidence of lip, mouth, throat, and lung cancer. If you do not believe it,

just look at the incidence of lung cancer per capita before 1950 and compare

it to the lung cancer per capita at the present time. Are those who smoke

committing suicide, or are they being murdered?"

-William Cooper, Behold A Pale Horse

Read more - "Radiation Found To Be The #1 Cause of Tobacco-Related Cancers"

Tobacco Shamanism

6 Nights Of Tobacco: A Physical, Psychological & Spiritual Detox
http://youtu.be/3zlhQqxaylE

Tobacco Diet!!! Cleansing the system with plant medicine
http://youtu.be/yop_Qp7Eh-k

Ceremony Not Cigarettes
http://youtu.be/NHGjaxe9He8

Check this thread for first-hand experiences with about tobacco shamanism

E-Cigarettes

When vaporizing cannabis or tobacco alone, minimal vapor will appear during exhalation. That which has not been absorbed by the lungs. E-Cigs use vegetable glycerin and Propylene Glycol to produce smoke. Usually with higher ratios of PG, as it is more popular.

PG is runnier than the VG variety, and is more easily absorbed by the polyfill fabric inside the cartomizer. The low density of the juice also means that gunk doesn’t build up on the heating element of your e-cigarette as fast as it does when thicker vegetable glycerin liquid is used. PG causes allergic reactions in some users. These can vary from minor reactions, like a tingling sensation in the throat, to serious irritations on various parts of the body. It also causes a stronger throat hit, more like a regular cigarette. PG-based e-juices are flavorless so produce the highest flavor intensity of the two substances. Also vapor feels warmer since it takes less time and power for PG to reach the level of vaporization. Vegetable Glycerin contains preexisting flavor and sweetness, produces more vapor, and is more natural.

Propylene Glycol and Ethylene Glycol are used to make antifreeze and de-icing solutions for cars, airplanes, and boats; to make polyester compounds; and as solvents in the paint and plastics industries. Propylene Glycol is an FDA-approved food additive "generally recognized as safe". It has no long-term history of human usage but seems to be toxic in excessively large amounts. Excessively high amounts cause Renal (kidney) failure. Correlating with the amounts consumed, Polypropylene Glycol contributes to Acidosis, an increased acidity in the blood and other body tissue. Those with cancer will want to avoid blood acidity. PG may also cause irritation and sensitivity to the eyes, skin and mucous membranes, according to the Scholar Chemistry Material Safety Data Sheet.

source: acute renal failure has been attributed to propylene glycol 

And the solvents can transform into something even more worrisome: carbonyls. This group includes known cancer-causing chemicals, such as formaldehyde, and suspected carcinogens, such as acetaldehyde.

Earlier this year, a study found that increasing an e-cig’s voltage from 3.2V to 4.8V while using an e-liquid with both solvents produced almost as much formaldehyde as a traditional*[additive] cigarette. While the human body produces formaldehyde as a byproduct of normal metabolic activity in the cells, it is suspected of being carcinogenic when inhaled.

The same study also found that at lower voltages, e-cigs produced up to 800 times less formaldehyde than a cigarette. While this might sound a lot safer, the size of the vapor particles and the delivery method into the lungs heavily impact the risk of disease.

Particles found in inhaled cigarette smoke have a median size of 0.3-0.5 microns. Testing has found that the e-cigarette particles have a median of 0.18-0.27 microns. About 40% of these particles can travel deep into the lungs and become embedded in the alveoli, where gas exchange occurs. Even if the particle itself isn’t toxic, the size alone places a burden on the lungs and can cause disease.

E-cigarettes deliver high levels of nanoparticles, the researchers found, which can trigger inflammation and have been linked to asthma, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes (SN: 7/18/09, p. 26). The levels “really raise concerns about heart disease and other chronic conditions where inflammation is involved,”

The mass of particles in the vapors is about 3 milligrams per cubic meter of air, he says, or about 100 times as high as the Environmental Protection Agency’s 24-hour exposure limit for levels of fine air particles. Thornburg’s group’s analyses predict that some 40 percent of these inhaled particles would deposit in the lungs’ smallest, deepest airways.

In addition to nicotine and solvents, vapors also contain chemical flavorings and food preservatives from the vaping liquid. Although they may be GRAS, or “generally recognized as safe” by FDA, Thornburg says, the designation is based on tests of the compounds when they are ingested. “No one has considered their safety when it comes to inhalation,” he says.

And e-cigarette vapors can even make dangerous germs harder to kill, Laura Crotty Alexander reported May 18 at an American Thoracic Society meeting in San Diego. A pulmonary and critical care physician and scientist with the VA San Diego Healthcare System, she exposed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA, to e-cigarette vapors.

In a lab dish, these antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can cause pneumonia, proved harder to kill using a germ-killing protein fragment — a natural antibiotic that people’s bodies make. One reason: Germs exposed to nicotine-rich vapors secreted a thicker biofilm coating that protected them.

Crotty Alexander also allowed mice to breathe in air containing MRSA that had been exposed to e-cigarette vapors. One day later, mice getting vapor-exposed germs had three times as many bacteria growing in their lungs as did mice that got unexposed germs.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/studies-reveal-health-risks-e-cigarettes
https://www.sciencenews....isks-e-cigarettes-emerge

General Industrial Tobacco Additives

History Channel: What's Inside A Factory-Made Cigarette?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNj5YxRaEQQ

Some of the most toxic ingredients used in cigarettes are Curing agents, flavoring agents, burning agents, but they are mostly used to make the cigarettes stronger & more addictive. i.e. to increase permeability in the body; Ammonia to freebase the nicotine, etc.

"There are approximately 600 ingredients in cigarettes. When burned, they create more than 7,000 chemicals. At least 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, and many are poisonous.

Many of these chemicals are also found in consumer products, but these products have warning labels. While the public is warned about the danger of the poisons in these products, there is no such warning for the toxins in tobacco smoke.

Here are a few of the chemicals in tobacco smoke, and other places they are found:

Acetone: Solvent used as nail polish remover.
Acetic Acid: Ingredient in hair dye
Ammonia: Household cleaner.
Arsenic: Used in rat poisons.
Benzene: Used in making dyes, synthetic rubber & rubber cement.
Butane: Gas; used in lighter fluid.
Cadmium: Active component in battery acid.
Carbon monoxide: Poisonous gas released in car exhaust fumes.
Cyanide: Lethal poison.
DDT: A banned insecticide.
Ethyl Furoate: Causes liver damage in animals.
Formaldehyde: Embalming fluid.
Hexamine: Found in barbeque lighter fluid
Lead: Poisonous in high doses. Heavy metal used in batteries.
Formaldehyde: Used to preserve dead specimens.
Methoprene: Insecticide.
Maltitol: Sweetener for diabetics.
Napthalene: Ingredient in mothballs.
Methanol: a main component in rocket fuel.
Methyl isocyanate: Its accidental release killed 2000 people in Bhopal, India, in 1984.
Polonium: Cancer-causing radioactive element.
Toluene: Used to manufacture paint"
American Lung Association:

For the whole list of 599 additives used in cigarettes, see the BBC Worldservice page What’s in a Cigarette.

Read even more: http://www.care2.com/gre...ettes.html#ixzz35a1LmT00

Some more Curiositys

Cigarette smoke is directly implicated in more than 25 serious illnesses, including 17 forms of cancer. In the Amazon, on the other hand, tobacco is considered a remedy. The ashaninca word for “healer,” or “shaman,” is sheripiari—literally, “the person who uses tobacco.”

Raw brand rolling papers are organic, raw, unrefined, hemp paper. They are much more natural and produce less material, harshness, and carcinogens when burning. If using paper, be sure to use these.

Most commercially made cigarettes are only 50% tobacco and the other 50% is a variety of fillers.

Check out this article, apparently tobacco is being researched to cure ebola