Are you aware of how much junk second-hand smoke adds to your oxygen? 4,800 chemical substances! Among those, 60 can cause cancer and more than 400 are actually poisonous! Here are some favourites from this toxic cocktail.

• Turpentine: If it can clean and dilute paint, imagine what it can do to a human body.
• Tar: Used to fix roofs. It not only fills cracks, it blocks airways. Regular smokers absorb the equivalent of 1 cup of tar per year… And non-smokers?
• Formaldehyde: Used to preserve corpses and as a pesticide. This product can cause cancer and respiratory problems.
• Arsenic: A very popular poison that gets the better of insects and rats.
• Ammonia: Nothing better to eliminate stains or clean windows.
• DDT: This powerful insecticide was banned because it was too toxic…
• Carbon Monoxide: Yup, the same gas that’s found in car exhaust and that destroys the ozone layer. In small doses, it contributes to heart disease. In large doses, it’s lethal.

The chemical substances in cigarette smoke are so toxic that they couldn’t even be buried in a dump. A great breath of air!

“But it’s not as bad if I’m not the one smoking,” you say?
Do the Second-hand smoke = blech! quiz to see if you’re right…