Smokers beware, you are puffing radioactivity

You don't have to be a Russian spy to be poisoned by polonium. It is right there in the cigarette you puff.

Ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko's death due to polonium made big news, but few realise that the same polonium is also present in cigarette smoke, and is one of the main causes of lung cancer in smokers.

"Cigarette smoke contains radioactivity. Smokers slowly poison themselves and also the passive smokers with polonium 210 and lead 210, two radioactive materials. They do not suffer from any acute radiation disease as the Russian spy but may develop an increased risk of lung cancer," says Dr K S Parthasarathy, former secretary, Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

One puff of a cigarette contains 4800 chemicals, out of which 69 are carcinogens. And the smoke which a second-hand smoker inhales contains no less than 400 of these chemicals. Americans receive more radiation from tobacco smoke than from any other source. American smokers smoke on an average 11,000 cigarettes annually.