The tobacco industry is made up of many companies that
make and sell different types of tobacco products. Whether it
is smoked, chewed, sniffed or inhaled second-hand, the use
of these tobacco products can and does cause debilitating
and life-threatening diseases, as well as premature death. The
cigarette is the single most commonly used tobacco product
in the European Union (EU). Most people are aware that
smoking cigarettes is harmful, as thousands of compounds
are produced and released in the smoke, some of which
(hundreds) are toxic. But what people may not be aware of
is that most tobacco manufacturers add ingredients other
than tobacco to cigarettes that affect the chemical make-up of
the smoke. These ingredients are known as tobacco additives
and are reportedly used, for example, to:
■■give a cigarette a particular flavour;
■■control the way the cigarette burns;
■■keep the tobacco moist thus preventing it from drying out