# Is tobacco smoke actually more injurious to health than other kinds of smoke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tobacco-smoke-actually-more-injurious-to-health-than-other-kinds-of-smoke/639680 "2012-11-02T16:44:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tobacco-smoke-actually-more-injurious-to-health-than-other-kinds-of-smoke/639680/1 "2012-11-02T16:44:11Z")
In another thread it was stated, > [@The Nanny state increases: CA town bans smoking in all non detached private residences](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanny-state-increases-ca-town-bans-smoking-in-all-non-detached-private-residences/638610/12): > > Cigarette smoke is more unhealthy than other types of smoke… Is this actually true in a meaningful sense, either with respect to cigarette smoke or tobacco smoke in general? I do get that tobacco smoke is addictive and that most people who smoke do it on a regular basis, in many cases several times a day, and that many instances of inhaling other substances occur on an infrequent basis. But if one rolled cigarettes out of oregano, peppermint, maple leaves, newsprint (with essential inks!), wheat, or dried apple peelings and _smoked the equivalent of a pack a day_ (define “equivalent” in a reasonable way), would it be as likely to cause emphysema, lung cancer, and other smoking related diseases as smoking a pack a day of Camels would, or is tobacco so much more dangerous in that you could chain smoke all day on the smoke of burning peppermint leaves and not get close to causing as much damage as a single puff on a regular cig? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tobacco-smoke-actually-more-injurious-to-health-than-other-kinds-of-smoke/639680/2 "2012-11-02T16:55:02Z")
Tobacco smoke has nicotine in it which would make it more injurious to health than otherwise equivalent smoke without nicotine. But some types of smoke will kill you within seconds where as tobacco smoke requires repeated use over a long period of time to be noticeably harmful. In other words, the statement is meaningless without further qualification. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tobacco-smoke-actually-more-injurious-to-health-than-other-kinds-of-smoke/639680/3 "2012-11-02T17:06:36Z")
Burning any organic compound (except maybe for simple ones like methane) will produce toxic byproducts like [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbon) (methane can still produce carbon monoxide, but it won’t gum up your lungs or cause cancer, that I have seen). This is especially true of a smoldering fire like in a cigarette, since incomplete combustion occurs to a much higher extent, hence the amount of smoke produced (compare to a lit candle to one that has just been blown out but is still smoldering). [This web page](http://www.burningissues.org/car-www/education/simple-facts.htm) claims that wood smoke in general is 12 times more carcinogenic than tobacco smoke and its effect lasts 40 times longer. Although it also claims that sawdust is a carcinogen; I’m suspicious of these numbers, I would imagine that cigarette smoke contains many more harmful substances due to the added ingredients (conversely, [this page](http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/po.htm) claims that polonium is the only component in tobacco smoke that causes cancer by itself). ---
**Author:** ![dataguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eada6e/32.png) [@dataguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dataguy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tobacco-smoke-actually-more-injurious-to-health-than-other-kinds-of-smoke/639680/4 "2012-11-02T18:53:26Z")
Tobacco smoke is [radioactive](http://www.epa.gov/radiation/sources/tobacco.html). It contains Polonium 210 as a result of the kind of fertilizer they started using in the 1930s. I know this sounds incredible, but it’s not a secret. It’s just not widely publicized. When C. Everett Coop was Surgeon General he issued papers linking cancer from smoking to this radioactivity. Almost nobody I mention this to is aware of this, or believes it.