Action Tips: Create a Display Showing What's Really in Cigarettes

Cigarettes contain more than just tobacco. There are over 7,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke. You can use household products that contain the same lethal stuff to make people realize how toxic ciggs are. How's how you show smokers what they're putting in their bodies:

Assemble Your Materials

The following chemicals are in cigarettes and also in these products:

• Arsenic: rat poison and pesticides
• Acetic Acid: vinegar and hair dye
• Acetone: paint thinner and nail polish remover
• Ammonia: a typical household cleaning fluid
• Benzene: gasoline
• Butane: lighter fluid, pesticides and paints
• Cadmium: batteries and artist’s paints
• Carbon Monoxide: car exhaust, as well as other sources (just use text for this)
• Formaldehyde: chemical used to embalm dead bodies, so check with the science teacher during dissection time
• Lead: a toxic metal that used to be found in some paints
• Naphthalene: mothballs and some paints
• Phenol: disinfectants and plastics
• Stearic acid: candles

Set Up

• These products don't have to be full of the chemical, just as long as you have the container to get the message across.
• Arrange the materials in the school trophy case or other community space wherever you've decided to set your display.

Explain

• If you have a type of event, be prepared with a description of all of the chemicals representated with use of these products.
• If you use a display case that you don't monitor, make sure there are signs that explain the dispaly.

Sources:

Kick Butts Day