Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 identified compounds. Many are known irritants and carcinogens. Since the first Surgeon General's Report on smoking and health in 1964, evidence linking the use of tobacco to illness, injury, and death has continued to mount. Many thousands of studies have documented the adverse health consequences of any type of tobacco, including cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco.

Specific airborne contaminants from cigarette smoke include respirable particles, nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, DDT, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, methane, carbon monoxide, acrolein, and nitrogen dioxide. Each one of these compounds impacts some part of the body. Irritating gases like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde affect the eyes, nose and throat. Others, like nicotine, impact the central nervous system. Carbon monoxide reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, starving the body of energy. Carcinogenic agents come into prolonged contact with vital organs and with the delicate linings...