This might strike you as surprising, as it did me, but radiation has been in cigarettes for more than forty years! We all have heard just how bad cigarettes are, but to know that they contain alpha particles on top of the other harmful substances is alarming, to say the least. And it is appalling to know that tobacco companies knew this and covered up the truth.
Researchers at UCLA published their findings in an article in the Sept. 27 Nicotine and Tobacco Journal which uncovered the hidden secret of polonium-210 which emits carcinogenic alpha radiation. These researchers also discovered that Big Tobacco kept this quiet because to remove the polonium-210 would be risking the removal of the instant nicotine rush which keeps their consumers addicted.
Big Tobacco knew of the radiation, a cause of lung cancer, and hid this information from the public. The radiation emitted from cigarettes can linger within your home well after you have finished the cigarette—for decades and decades. All tobacco products on the market today still contain polonium-210. This radiation can account for 120 per 1,000 deaths of regular cigarette smokers over a 25 year period.
According to the UCLA Newsroom, Hrayr S.Karagueuzian, one of the researchers, thinks that the FDA should consider the removal of the alpha particles from all tobacco products, thanks to the June 2009 passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
Read more from UCLA Newsroom or from ABC News.
–Joy Williams, PHW Regional Consultant
