Smoking

[lostinstrangeworld]

Is tobacco really bad for our health, or is what we are told about tobacco make believe in any way? Could there be anything in tobacco which may be good at all? People have been smoking tobacco since ancient times.

Found an interesting thread posted some time ago:

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14564

Interesting article:

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14564

[deafbred]

you will find great info indeed because you seek it

[turquoisefire777]

it's not necessarily the tobacco thats doing the damage, cigs appearantly have over 3000 different chemicals in them, among otheres cyanide.

so it's the chemicals doing the BRAIN damage, not just the 'bacco doing lung damage.

i smoked for a couple of years and it was hell. finally broke the habit with herb capsules like velarian and hops...takes away the craving.

[supertzar]

I've said it many times - it's the radiation in commercial tobacco that causes lung cancer. Google polonium 110 tobacco.

[jojo]

I recon im alergic to tobacco. ive tried in the past (in my youth) to smoke on numerous occasions but half way down the fag I go green and upchuck! not good for the cool factor!!

I cant even smoke spliffs if they have tobacco in them for the same reason. I smoke it through a pipe or mix it with a herbal high called shamans pipe.

I would like to try some real untouched tobacco though, I hear it is far better for you than fags. shamans have used it in its natural form for eons.

[eternal_spirit]

so it's the chemicals doing the BRAIN damage, not just the 'bacco doing lung damage.

i smoked for a couple of years and it was hell. finally broke the habit with herb capsules like velarian and hops...takes away the craving.


Other studies suggest smoking actually enhances the brains neural pathways and intelligence, smokers think faster or something like that.

Smoking mixed with alcohol effects my breathing slightly in a bad way, but black coffe is good if you smoke a lot that mix and I've had no problems for many years.

Mix hemp with tobacco and you will never have any problems as long as you don't drink alcohol at the same time. But I think it can affect people differently. Pass the pipe.

[lookfar]

it's not necessarily the tobacco thats doing the damage, cigs appearantly have over 3000 different chemicals in them, among otheres cyanide.

so it's the chemicals doing the BRAIN damage, not just the 'bacco doing lung damage.

Hi honey;)

I'm not denying that most tobacco is heavily sprayed with various pesticides etc (unless you get organically grown stuff), but the normal flue cured Virginia cigarettes (ie unflavoured) do not have chemicals added to the tobacco when they're produced. It's the actual burning process which causes nearly all of these carcinogens - you will also find them in anything that is burned/charred, ie bbq'd food/burnt toast etc.

Here are a couple of links on benzopryrene & additives in cigs (bear in mind it is from wiki though...:))

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzopyrene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes

[disorder2k8]

I agree that commercial ciggerettes are very bad, roll your own are far safer but even then the tobacco is treated. Anything that is smoke that goes into your lungs, it could be wood fire or whatever, is bad. Its smoke innhilation, which blocks the tiny oxygen receptors (I forgot what they are called but it begins with an 'A')

That list is scary! Pepper spray?

I know how to make that :) and smoke grenades lol.. but kids remember, there is knowing and there is putting knowledge to use, dont go there.

[supertzar]

Lookfar, baby. And everyone else: listen to me about radiation in commercial tobacco. Look it up for yourself, polonium 110 tobacco.

[turquoisefire777]

Other studies suggest smoking actually enhances the brains neural pathways and intelligence, smokers think faster or something like that.

Smoking mixed with alcohol effects my breathing slightly in a bad way, but black coffe is good if you smoke a lot that mix and I've had no problems for many years.

Mix hemp with tobacco and you will never have any problems as long as you don't drink alcohol at the same time. But I think it can affect people differently. Pass the pipe.

i can digg that smoking has benefits, but thats if you've got descent stuff that produces the desired results with minimal damage. also, it was probably the radiation(!) as supertzar mentioned that my body didn't like. the stuff i smoked was always the commercial cigs that eventually wore me out and caused me to quit.

[turquoisefire777]

Hi honey;)

I'm not denying that most tobacco is heavily sprayed with various pesticides etc (unless you get organically grown stuff), but the normal flue cured Virginia cigarettes (ie unflavoured) do not have chemicals added to the tobacco when they're produced. It's the actual burning process which causes nearly all of these carcinogens - you will also find them in anything that is burned/charred, ie bbq'd food/burnt toast etc.

Here are a couple of links on benzopryrene & additives in cigs (bear in mind it is from wiki though...:))

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzopyrene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes

hiya:D

yeah, like you said...

[heebeejeebee]

I recon im alergic to tobacco. ive tried in the past (in my youth) to smoke on numerous occasions but half way down the fag I go green and upchuck! not good for the cool factor!!

I cant even smoke spliffs if they have tobacco in them for the same reason. I smoke it through a pipe or mix it with a herbal high called shamans pipe.

I would like to try some real untouched tobacco though, I hear it is far better for you than fags. shamans have used it in its natural form for eons.

try some Natural American Spirit tobacco, it's pure natural tobacco, with no stems, preservatives or additives, made entirely from 100% whole leaf.

[supertzar]

It would be wise to determine if American Spirit is grown with rock phosphate fertilizer. That is the source of the radiation in commercial tobacco. I know it's organic, but I think rock phosphate is allowed in organic growing. I am not sure about whether American Spirit is grown with rock phosphate or not.

[lookfar]

Lookfar, baby. And everyone else: listen to me about radiation in commercial tobacco. Look it up for yourself, polonium 110 tobacco.

Thanks supertzar baby;) I did mean to look that up yesterday but got distracted, so will do it now.... (I've got a feeling I'm not gonna like it though, eek!!:eek:)

[lookfar]

Ok I've found a couple of sites on it & just trawling my way through them now (& a few more I've read & not linked as my brain hurts now, lol:))

http://www.almendron.com/tribuna/12986/puffing-on-polonium/#high_1

http://www.acsa2000.net/HealthAlert/radioactive_tobacco.html

I must say that with all the radiation we're currently exposed to in the atmosphere, this isn't gonna make me give up just yet (although I probably should!):o:)

[astro zombie]

It would be wise to determine if American Spirit is grown with rock phosphate fertilizer. That is the source of the radiation in commercial tobacco. I know it's organic, but I think rock phosphate is allowed in organic growing. I am not sure about whether American Spirit is grown with rock phosphate or not.

Hey man what kinda smokes do you recommend? I'm wanting to smoke again.:cool:

[jojo]

try some Natural American Spirit tobacco, it's pure natural tobacco, with no stems, preservatives or additives, made entirely from 100% whole leaf.


cheers, where would I buy that? on line?

[lostinstrangeworld]

Apparently Stewart Swerdlow only smokes Native American Spirit tobacco. I got some from my Natural Grocery Store today. ;)

[supertzar]

I just grow my own. It's easy and I get a far superior product. I got my seeds for $10 including shipping. The kind I grow is Nicotiana Rustica, the tobacco native to the Americas. It is far more potent, so I don't need to smoke much to get blasted out of my brain. Not only does it have 10 to 20 times the nicotine, it has other psychoactive compounds like harmine and harmaline.

[astro zombie]

Damn that sounds tempting! I think i'm too lazy for that though.

[eyepod]

I've said it many times - it's the radiation in commercial tobacco that causes lung cancer. Google polonium 110 tobacco.

What he said - it's the Polonium in them that causes lung cancer. It's same stuff that killed that Russian guy Litvinenko that had all the controversy.

Some tobacco plants are grown using fertilisers that contain a mineral called apatite. Apatite contains a radioactive element called radium, which can eventually decay into polonium-210.
But tobacco plants can also absorb radioactive elements directly from the air around them. These include both polonium, and other radioactive elements that eventually decay into it. Tobacco leaves are covered in sticky hairs, making them especially good at catching chemicals from the atmosphere around them. Studies in countries all over the world have found significant levels of polonium in local tobacco brands.
http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2008/08/29/radioactive-polonium-in-cigarette-smoke/

or

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/tobacco-firms-kept-quiet-on--polonium-role-in-cigarettes-907194.html

[eyepod]

cheers, where would I buy that? on line?

A friend of mine bought some recently from Sainsbury's of all places. Was about 30p more expensive but came with a free packet of rolling papers :cool:

[lostinstrangeworld]

I've smoked some of it today. It kind of tastes different. I'm sure it must be due to lack of chemicals that were in the other brand I was smoking. (?) :eek:

[tim the enchanter]

http://www.nascigs.com/

[tim the enchanter]

And you can get loose and pre rolled American Spirit in any tobacconist in England, at any rate. Their loose tabacco is delicious.

[supertzar]

Delicious and quite likely ___________ (fill in the blank.) :(

[w1nstonsm1th84]

Here's me with my bag of Fox's Glacier® Mints...

... what I sheltered life I've lead. :)

[tim the enchanter]

Delicious and quite likely ___________ (fill in the blank.) :(

Sorry, that flew straight over my head.

:confused:

You mean to say that they're poisenous?

[tim the enchanter]

Here's me with my bag of Fox's Glacier® Mints...

... what I sheltered life I've lead. :)


Your photo is missing.

:confused:

[w1nstonsm1th84]

Your photo is missing.

:confused:

That's mildly amusing... mildly! :-/

[supertzar]

Sorry, that flew straight over my head.

:confused:

You mean to say that they're poisenous?

I mean if they are grown with rock phosphate fertilizer, which IS allowed for organic growers, it is probably radioactive. I don't know if it is grown that way or not, but it would be good to find out.

[tim the enchanter]

That's mildly amusing... mildly! :-/

OH, right, yeah. Sorry, I've had a cold...

[tothestars]

http://www.nascigs.com/

Guess who owns that company now... :(

[heebeejeebee]

I mean if they are grown with rock phosphate fertilizer, which IS allowed for organic growers, it is probably radioactive. I don't know if it is grown that way or not, but it would be good to find out.

Slightly off topic but interesting



Radioactive tobacco

by David Malmo-Levine (02 Jan, 2002)

It's not tobacco's tar which kills, but the radiation!


Cannabis is often compared to tobacco, with the damage caused by smoking tobacco given as a reason to prohibit use of cannabis. Yet most of the harms caused by tobacco use are due not to tar, but to the use of radioactive fertilizers. Surprisingly, radiation seems to be the most dangerous and important factor behind tobacco lung damage.

Radioactive fertilizer

It's a well established but little known fact that commercially grown tobacco is contaminated with radiation. The major source of this radiation is phosphate fertilizer.1 The big tobacco companies all use chemical phosphate fertilizer, which is high in radioactive metals, year after year on the same soil. These metals build up in the soil, attach themselves to the resinous tobacco leaf and ride tobacco trichomes in tobacco smoke, gathering in small "hot spots" in the small-air passageways of the lungs.2 Tobacco is especially effective at absorbing radioactive elements from phosphate fertilizers, and also from naturally occurring radiation in the soil, air, and water.3

To grow what the tobacco industry calls "more flavorful" tobacco, US farmers use high-phosphate fertilizers. The phosphate is taken from a rock mineral, apatite, that is ground into powder, dissolved in acid and further processed. Apatite rock also contains radium, and the radioactive elements lead 210 and polonium 210. The radioactivity of common chemical fertilizer can be verified with a Geiger-Mueller counter and an open sack of everyday 13-13-13 type of fertilizer (or any other chemical fertilizer high in phosphate content).4

Conservative estimates put the level of radiation absorbed by a pack-and-a-half a day smoker at the equivalent of 300 chest X-rays every year.5 The Office of Radiation, Chemical & Biological Safety at Michigan State University reports that the radiation level for the same smoker was as high as 800 chest X-rays per year.6 Another report argues that a typical nicotine user might be getting the equivalent of almost 22,000 chest X-rays per year.7

US Surgeon General C Everett Koop stated on national television in 1990 that tobacco radiation is probably responsible for 90% of tobacco-related cancer.8 Dr RT Ravenholt, former director of World Health Surveys at the Centers for Disease Control, has stated that "Americans are exposed to far more radiation from tobacco smoke than from any other source."9

Researchers have induced cancer in animal test subjects that inhaled polonium 210, but were unable to cause cancer through the inhalation of any of the non-radioactive chemical carcinogens found in tobacco.10 The most potent non-radioactive chemical, benzopyrene, exists in cigarettes in amounts sufficient to account for only 1% of the cancer found in smokers.9

Smoke screen

Surprisingly, the US National Cancer Institute, with an annual budget of $500 million, has no active grants for research on radiation as a cause of lung cancer.1

Tobacco smoking has been popular for centuries,11 but lung cancer rates have only increased significantly after the 1930's.12 In 1930 the lung cancer death rate for white US males was 3.8 per 100,000 people. By 1956 the rate had increased almost tenfold, to 31 per 100,000.13 Between 1938 and 1960, the level of polonium 210 in American tobacco tripled, commensurate with the increased use of chemical fertilizers.14

Publicly available internal memos of tobacco giant Philip Morris indicate that the tobacco corporation was well aware of radiation contamination in 1974, and that they had means to remove polonium from tobacco in 1980, by using ammonium phosphate as a fertilizer, instead of calcium phosphate. One memo describes switching to ammonium phosphate as a "valid but expensive point."15

Attorney Amos Hausner, son of the prosecutor who sent Nazi Adolf Eichmann to the gallows, is using these memos as evidence to fight the biggest lawsuit in Israel's history, to make one Israeli and six US tobacco companies pay up to $8 billion for allegedly poisoning Israelis with radioactive cigarettes.16


Organic solutions

The radioactive elements in phosphate fertilizers also make their way into our food and drink. Many food products, especially nuts, fruits, and leafy plants like tobacco absorb radioactive elements from the soil, and concentrate them within themselves.17

The fluorosilicic acid used to make the "fluoridated water" most of us get from our taps is made from various fluorine gases captured in pollution scrubbers during the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers. This fluoride solution put into our water for "strong teeth" also contains radioactive elements from the phosphate extraction.18

Although eating and drinking radioactive products is not beneficial, the most harmful and direct way to consume these elements is through smoking them.19

The unnecessary radiation delivered from soil-damaging, synthetic chemical fertilizers can easily be reduced through the use of alternative phosphate sources including organic fertilizers.20 In one test, an organic fertilizer appeared to emit less alpha radiation than a chemical fertilizer.21 More tests are needed to confirm this vital bit of harm-reduction information.

Organic fertilizers such as organic vegetable compost, animal manure, wood ash and seaweed have proven to be sustainable and non-harmful to microbes, worms, farmers and eaters or smokers. Chemical phosphates may seem like a bargain compared to natural phosphorous, until you factor in the health and environmental costs.

To ensure that cannabis remains the safest way to get high, we must always use organic fertilizers and non-toxic pesticides. We should also properly cure the buds, take advantage of high-potency breeding and use smart-smoking devices like vaporizers and double-chambered glass water bongs. These will all help to address concern over potential lung damage far more effectively than either a jail cell or a 12-step program.

Tobacco smokers can also use this information to avoid radioactive brands of tobacco. American Spirit is one of a few companies that offers an organic line of cigarettes, and organic cigars are also available from a few companies. You can also grow your own tobacco(!!!!!!!), which is surprisingly easy and fun.

Until the public has an accurate understanding of how phosphate fertilizers carry radiation, and why commercial tobacco causes lung cancer but cannabis does not, there will be many needless tobacco-related deaths, and increased resistance to the full legalization of marijuana.

http://www.acsa2000.net/HealthAlert/radioactive_tobacco.html

[bario]

I switched to smoking american spirit tobacco, previously I smoked drum mild. Already I'm noticing a few things, mostly that I'm smoking more which I put down to the fact that I'm detoxing from the additives of normal tobacco. Apart from that American Spirit seems a much nicer smoke and I'm going to use it to help me cut out smoking entirerly. I figure if I smoke this for a while it will cut out my addictiction to all the nasty crap they add to drum making it easier to stop entirerly.

[lostinstrangeworld]

I switched to smoking american spirit tobacco, previously I smoked drum mild. Already I'm noticing a few things, mostly that I'm smoking more which I put down to the fact that I'm detoxing from the additives of normal tobacco. Apart from that American Spirit seems a much nicer smoke and I'm going to use it to help me cut out smoking entirerly. I figure if I smoke this for a while it will cut out my addictiction to all the nasty crap they add to drum making it easier to stop entirerly.

Yeah, I definitely notice the difference also. My head use to feel strange after smoking regular tobacco. I think I find the Native American Spirit tobacco less addictive too. I'm getting quite use to it now (i wasn't sure if I liked it at first because it seemed a bit different).

It was interesting what someone said on another thread which I posted the link to at the beginning.....that the Natives knew if you rubbed tobacco on a bee sting it would stop the swelling from an allergic reaction. I'm sure someone I know in the family will be pleased if this is true...as much as they seem to hate the idea of tobacco, I'm sure they'll be grateful in this case. ;)

[krakhead]

Delicious and quite likely ___________ (fill in the blank.) :(

Answer correctly and you could win one of these!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaCtgwPZdr8

[krakhead]

I just grow my own. It's easy and I get a far superior product. I got my seeds for $10 including shipping. The kind I grow is Nicotiana Rustica, the tobacco native to the Americas. It is far more potent, so I don't need to smoke much to get blasted out of my brain. Not only does it have 10 to 20 times the nicotine, it has other psychoactive compounds like harmine and harmaline.

Where from! Where from! :)

[w1nstonsm1th84]

Answer correctly and you could win one of these!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaCtgwPZdr8

Hahaha... I used to LOVE that programme.... Terry... and Les ruled! :o

:eek:

Seriously... it was brilliant... those were the days! :D

[supertzar]

Where from! Where from! :)

bouncingbearbotanicals.com