• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

ciggyfree.com

The Quit Smoking Blog

You are here: Home / Smoking Facts / How Much Tar in That Cigarette?

How Much Tar in That Cigarette?

By Editor 3 Comments

The yellow stains on a smoker’s fingers and teeth is caused by the tar that results from smoking tobacco.

Tar causes great damage to a person’s lungs as it kills the cilia, affecting breathing ability.

The accumulation of this substance can be difficult to imagine, but a graphic video demonstrates for people the levels of tar that is extracted from approximately 20 packs of cigarettes.

Smoking Video Shows Tar Extraction

The video Still Smoking? Watch This! shows an experiment where almost 400 cigarettes are “smoked” through water using a vacuum. The water turns brown and then eventually black as the tar is extracted from the cigarettes. The more “tarry” the water, the more smoke is trapped as well.

Cigarettes in a PileThe experimenters then boil the tar water. After the water as evaporated, only the thick black tar remains. After letting the substance dry, the result is a sticky, crusty tar crust.

This experiment was done to stimulate what substance settles in a smoker’s lungs.

More Reason to Quit Smoking

The cigarettes used in this experiment contained 18 mg of tar. Cigarette companies manufacture cigarettes in three categories:

  • low tar cigarettes with 7 mg of tar or less
  • medium tar cigarettes with 15 to 21 mg of tar
  • high tar cigarettes with 22 mg of tar or more

Cigarettes contain over 4,00 chemicals, including more than 40 known carcinogens. Tar in cigarettes is the byproduct of smoking tobacco. Tar build up in the lungs causes damage as it prevents proper functioning. The accumulation of tar in a smoker’s body contributes to several health problems, including the following few:

  • emphysema
  • bronchitis
  • lung cancer
  • chronic respiratory disease
  • mouth cancer
  • throat cancer.

Watch the video Still Smoking?

See for yourself the amount of tar that’s produced

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Filed Under: Smoking Facts Tagged With: cigarette chemicals, cigarette tar, low tar cigarettes, lung cilia, smoking risks, tar and nicotine in cigarettes, tar in cigarettes, tar in tobacco, tar levels in cigarettes

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. David Boulton says

    April 8, 2012 at 4:41 am

    I’m not sure who to share this with. As my good friends, Kirk and Sandy over at Positive Projections, tweeted about this page, I decided to share it with you.

    My work is about healthy learning and from that perspective the following is an idea that I think could help many more smokers quit than anything else out there on the market:

    A natural substance that can be added (by drops or mist-spray or …) to cigarettes… 

    The substance is something that will cause the taste of the cigarette to shift in a tolerably distasteful way.  Ideally the substance can be varied in flavor and distaste intensity. The distaste can be user varied from tolerable through disgusting (possibly to the edge of the gag reflex).  A smoker then embarks on a self-paced progression from mild distaste to disgust. With the right substance this kind of ‘feedback’ could be extremely helpful to a person who wants to quit. 

    A person desiring to quit smoking removes their smokes from the original pack ‘treats’ them and places them in the quit pack.  An alternate is that rather than having to ‘treat’ them, placing them into the ‘quit pack’ treats them.

    We learn best, including changing behaviors, when we receive vivid feedback on the living edge of our learning. A system like this would allow someone who wants to quit to regulate the vividness of the feedback they need to turn their experience of smoking against their habit of smoking. Someone out there in alternative health should perfect the additive substance and method of delivery. 

    David Boulton, Learning-Activist

    Loading...
    Reply
  2. POW'R Tobacco Cessation Center says

    July 11, 2012 at 7:13 am

    The facts are: Cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and approximately 80-90 percent of COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis) deaths. 

    Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.

    Health care professionals are good sources of information about the health risks of smoking and the benefits of quitting. Talk to your doctor, dentist, pharmacist, or other health care provider about the proper use and potential side effects of nicotine replacement products and other medicines.
    Your state has a toll-free telephone quitline. Call 1–800–QUIT–NOW (1–800–784–8669) to get one-on-one help with quitting, support and coping strategies, and referrals to resources and local cessation programs. The toll-free number routes callers to state-run quitlines, which provide free cessation assistance and resource information to all tobacco users in the United States. This initiative was created by the Department of Health and Human Services.  

    Healthcare providers and tobacco users in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley region, specifically, should contact POW’R Tobacco Cessation Center ( http://www.powrcessationcenter.org ), a grant program of the American Lung Association of the Northeast and funded by the New York State Department of Health Tobacco Control Program (NYTCP).   POW’R provides on-site evidence-based tobacco cessation training to healthcare providers using clinical guidelines to assist them in helping patients to quit smoking.  We also provide outreach services, materials and resources for tobacco users.

    Loading...
    Reply
  3. Abass Toriola says

    March 27, 2013 at 12:37 am

    Very insightful experiment. I hope this will go a long way in deterring smokers from the habit.
    Even if they don’t quit for other reasons, the health problems caused by tar are enough reasons for them to quit today.

    Loading...
    Reply

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Search

Video Shows Smoker’s Lungs

By Editor Leave a Comment

Warning About Electronic Cigarette Chargers

By Editor 1 Comment

23.6 Billion Ruling Against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

By Editor Leave a Comment

No Butts About It

By Editor Leave a Comment

Thirdhand Smoke Effects DNA

By Editor Leave a Comment

Categories

  • Environmental News (7)
  • Helpful Nutrition (4)
  • In the News (69)
  • Nicotine Addiciton Dependence (19)
  • Quit Smoking Stories (5)
  • Smoking and Cancer (15)
  • Smoking Facts (46)
  • Smoking Related Diseases (40)
  • Smoking Research (38)
  • Stop Smoking Aids (31)
  • Tips and Support (49)
  • Tobacco Regulation (31)

Recent Comments

  • Editor on Way to Go California – 1 800 No Butts at Your Service
  • wes headley on Way to Go California – 1 800 No Butts at Your Service
  • Susan Trevino on How Smoking Damages The Lungs
  • Mark Robinson on Do You Know What’s in Your Cigarette?
  • Laken on How Long After You Quit Smoking Does Healing Begin?

Tag Cloud

american cancer society big tobacco cigarette addiction cigarette carcinogens cigarette chemicals cigarette taxes dangers of secondhand smoke dangers of smoking dangers of smoking tobacco genetics and smoking lung cancer nicotine nicotine addiction nicotine dependency nicotine patch philip morris quit smoking quitting smoking rj reynolds secondhand smoke secondhand smoke Smoking and Cancer smoking and lung cancer smoking cessation smoking dangers smoking deaths smoking during pregnancy Smoking Related Diseases smoking related illnesses Smoking Research smoking risks smoking statistics smoking study stop smoking aid stop smoking support stop smoking tips tar in cigarettes teenage smokers teen smokers tobacco addiction tobacco chemicals tobacco companies tobacco industry women smokers world health organization

Pages

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Why Quitting Smoking is Crucial
  • FDA rules JUUL Must Cease in US
  • Juul Vaping Lawsuit Results in 22.5 Million Settlement
  • Ambitious Crackdown to Stop Harm From Smoking
  • Eye Health Alert

Recent Comments

  • Editor on Way to Go California – 1 800 No Butts at Your Service
  • wes headley on Way to Go California – 1 800 No Butts at Your Service
  • Susan Trevino on How Smoking Damages The Lungs
  • Mark Robinson on Do You Know What’s in Your Cigarette?
  • Laken on How Long After You Quit Smoking Does Healing Begin?

Categories

Environmental News Helpful Nutrition In the News Nicotine Addiciton Dependence Quit Smoking Stories Smoking and Cancer Smoking Facts Smoking Related Diseases Smoking Research Stop Smoking Aids Tips and Support Tobacco Regulation

Copyright Creative Tech Park Website Design Development Company © 2025
Address: House: 24, Level: 3, Road: 01, Block: B, Niketan, Gulshan 1, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh

%d