Ingredients in Tobacco Smoke
2nd and 3rd Grade
What to say when making a presentation…
Bring out the black bag full of ingredients.
Tell the students you are going to show them some ingredients that the tobacco industry puts in cigarettes to get you addicted and to keep you as their paying customer for life.
Ask the Question:
Can anyone tell me how many ingredients are in a cigarette? (Give them 3 guesses then tell them the correct answer, over 4,000 200 of them are poisons)
Pull the items listed below out and explain what they are and what they do:
Rat – Rat poison is a deadly poison, both to rats and humans.
Car – Carbon Monoxide – Smelly bus or car exhaust contains this poisonous gas. It is the number one ingredient in tobacco smoke.
Battery – Has anyone every have a toy that had the batteries inside go bad? They get this brownish, white crust on them and parents tell you not to touch it – that’s because there is a chemical in batteries that is very dangerous and poisonous.
Nail Polish Remover – Has anyone ever gotten their fingers ‘super-glued’ together? Nail polish remover can eat the Super Glue and get your fingers apart. If it eats glue and paint, imagine what it does to lungs?
Toilet Cleaner – Who has ever licked the inside of a freshly cleaned toilet bowl? You are putting the same chemicals in your mouth if you smoke.
Nicotine – This chemical is poisonous and it is what a smoker gets addicted to. Has anyone ever seen this poison sign before? When smoking a cigarette you are actually putting poison in your mouth.
Ingredients in Tobacco Smoke
4th and 5th Grade
What to say when making a presentation…
Pull out the black bag with ingredients and tell the students you are now going to share some of the chemicals the tobacco industry puts in a cigarette to get them and keep them addicted.
Ask this question:
Does anyone know how many chemicals are in a cigarette? (Just give them 3 guesses – over 7,000)
There are over 200 poisons in a cigarette and 43 of them are known to cause cancer
Rocket – Methanol – Rocket fuel is a poison. Inhalation can cause blindness.
Bug Spray – DDT – DDT is a pesticide that was outlawed because it was killing off the bald eagle. Our government cares more about the bald eagle than people, because they still allow this chemical in tobacco smoke.
Rat – Arsenic – Rat poison is a deadly poison, both to rats and humans.
Car – Carbon Monoxide – Smelly bus or car exhaust contains this poisonous gas. It is the number one ingredient in tobacco smoke. This is so poisonous that many of us have carbon monoxide detectors in our homes.
Gas Mask – Hydrogen Cyanide – One of the most toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke. So deadly it was used in the gas chambers used in for the death penalty.
Frog – Formaldehyde – A cancer-causing chemical that is used to preserve dead bodies, like the pig lungs and the frogs used for dissecting in high school.
Battery – Cadmium – Has anyone every have a toy that had the batteries inside go bad? They get this brownish, white crust on them and parents tell you not to touch it – that’s because cadmium, a chemical in batteries, is a poisonous metal and a carcinogen. It is very dangerous when inhaled.
Nail Polish Remover – Acetone – Has anyone ever gotten their fingers ‘super-glued’ together? Acetone is one of the few chemicals that can get Super Glue apart along with removing nail polish. If it eats glue and paint, imagine what it does to lungs?
Toilet Cleaner – Ammonia – Tobacco companies add ammonia because it lets a smoker’s body absorb more nicotine – keeping them hooked on smoking.
Nicotine – This chemical is poisonous and it is what a smoker gets addicted to. Has anyone ever seen this poison sign before? When smoking a cigarette you are actually putting poison in your mouth.
