Radiactive Tobacco, Equivalent 300-800 Chest XRays, Yearly!

www.acsa2000.net...

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.....


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

This an incredible slaughter of people, endorsed and accepted by your leaders. This is the real reason smoking is dangerous.

The fertilizers used! This is not only an issue with tobacco, but with food as well, except when ingested it does less harm than when smoked! However that doesn't mean we want to ingest or smoke it.

People need to TAKE ACTION, and not only this issue, but ALL issues, illegal wars, stavation, poisons, nuclear waste strewn around the world, and freedom issues!


Just look at the skeptics spin the truth in this:

ask.metafilter.com...

Is there any truth to the suggestion that, "Many scientists believe that cancer deaths among smokers are due to the radioactive content of tobacco leaves and not to nicotine and tar" (source). If so, where does one get non-radioactive tobacco?...


Well, it's New Scientist, so it's good to take anything they say with a grain of salt. But they are quoting an paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the full text so I can't look up the citations that Papastefanou relies on.

As far as avoiding radioactive tobacco, you can't. Radioactivity is everywhere. You might be able to find less radioactive tobacco. The article indicates that some of the leaves he looked at had more than 2.5 times the radioactivity of others. I doubt there is widespread information on the radioactivity of commercial cigarettes, but I could be wrong. You would probably have to measure it yourself.

Radioactive Cigarette - Marlboro vs. American Spirit

This short but excellent video, compares 2 cigarettes, radiated versus America Spirit organic, and the results of what happens when the lights go out.

Radiation in tobboca via their fertilizer is what is causing all of the lung and throat cancer.
Its an unbelievable criminal act.

Glad I'm growing my own tobacco and using natural fertilizers from my own chickens. Should quit though, now that Michigan has this new anti-smoking law going into effect starting May 1st. It will be nicotine gum at work now. Lets not forget all the additives in tobacco and the slow burn filter tubes they make us use here now too. American Spirit is produced by the Native Americans is it not? Why not get it from the people who started using it first?

Thanks for this.

Switching to American Spirit.

Are these same fertilizers used on other crops?

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


All tobacco sold has to conform to regulations...unless you grown your own tobacco like you are doing there will always be extra things added. Even in American Spirit. Anyway, yes i knew about this and while im bothered about it im not bothered enough to stop. Tobacco companies have lots of tricks up their sleeves and things they don't want to get out to the general public even in 2010. Making tobacco more addictive via ammonia being one.

Cigarettes contain Polonium-210, which is radioactive. There are many, many other compounds that will kill you in various ways, so smoking "non-radioactive" tobacco, if there is such a thing, isn't safe.

Linky

Edit to add more on polonium:

Tobacco
The presence of polonium in tobacco smoke has been known since the early 1960s.[62][63] Some of the world's biggest tobacco firms researched ways to remove the substance—to no avail—over a 40-year period but never published the results.[23]

Radioactive polonium-210 contained in phosphate fertilizers is absorbed by the roots of plants (such as tobacco) and stored in its tissues.[64][65][66] Tobacco plants fertilized by rock phosphates contain polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation estimated to cause about 11,700 lung cancer deaths annually worldwide.[23][67][68]

Linky


[edit on 26-3-2010 by Digital_Reality]

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


I've started RYO for about 2 months now, a world of difference (in a good way) from Marlboro. I'd love to grow my own, but damn that seems like alot of work I've already cut back significantly from the labor of RYO)

reply to post by 5 oClock


Its hard, dirty work processing it. You'll trash the kitchen when working on it. I had two small rows the first season I grew it and I smoked without limit for about four months after harvest. If I grew enough for the year, I'd need a drying shed or barn and bulk quantities of ingredients for processing. I compare it to wine and beer making as far as the work goes.

reply to post by rubyeyes


According the link in my OP: www.acsa2000.net...

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

So I believe the answer is YES! But, ingested is not the same as inhaling, in terms of delivery and potential harm, though there is no way, I would ever wish to have my food contaminated

www.webspawner.com...

Radon and radon decendants are naturally present in the earth and concentrated in fertilizer(1). This discussion focuses on Polonium 210 because it emits a particularly energetic(2) ionizing alpha radiation which is more hazardous when received internally(3). Although external exposure to alpha radiation is usually not dangerous, continuous external exposure to radiation from chemical fertilizer may cause skin cancer(4).

Research has shown that tobacco can absorb Po210. Similarly, many plants we commonly use for food can absorb polonium and other radon progeny(5). The widespread use of radioactive phosphate fertilizer may be increasing levels of radioactive polonium in animal feeds as well(6). In Europe, the majority of polonium in the average diet is sourced in grains, vegetables, and meat(7). In the United States, where chemical fertilizer use is more prevalent, the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research reports that polonium in American dairy and meat products expose human organs to radiation levels equivalent to tobacco use(8). Small amounts of polonium can even be found in fluoridated drinking water(9) which, in addition to normally present radionuclides, may be influenced by farm irrigation and run off(10).

Polonium from tobacco smoke is carried by the blood and accumulates in the liver, kidneys, bone marrow, and blood vessel walls(11). If fertilizer sourced polonium in food is distributed around the body in the same way, then much of the food we eat causes internal ionizing alpha radiation. In order to estimate the full measure of radiation in the diet, we must consider the radioactivity of all radon daughters(12) both naturally present and those added by fertilizer. There is a large variance in the estimates of polonium content in american polonium intake(13).

Food borne radon daughters may or may not be absorbed/distributed as efficiently as polonium in tobacco smoke. However, as seen in the above European diet example, food can deliver internal radiation exposure beyond the limits considered safe for external occupational exposure(14). It is not clear how much radioactive content fertilizer contributes to food and how much is naturally present. .....


FOOTNOTES:

1. www.nature.nps.gov/toxic/uranium.pdf

"Fertilizers made from phosphate rocks contain higher
amounts of uranium than natural soils..."

Its not as bad as smoking it, but its still something we need to address, along with a lot of other issues. This is not acceptable in any way, we have to love our children, ourselves, and humanity more than this, more than being bought off by trinkets, and media, and entertainment, enough to stand up and change this system!

reply to post by Unity_99


You bring up a very serious issue. The best way to handle this issue by my estimation would be using civil lawsuits that sue manufacturers who use this heavy metal tobacco.

I'm tired of redundant laws making something that is already legal even "more illegal"... its ridiculous. Pretty much all pollution and "mass poisoning" problems should be handled by focusing on lawsuits.

With 250 harmful compounds in cigarette smoke, over 50 of which are carcinogenic (www.cancer.gov...), there's plenty of cancer risk in tobacco with or without the use of phosphate fertilizer containing pollonium 210. The issue of leaking into food products may be a bigger concern.

[edit on 26-3-2010 by Monsieur Neary]

reply to post by Unity_99


It's a good thing that im quiting smoking when I return to the states next week. If only my friends would listen to this story that I am about to tell them but then again it is their health not mine.

my lord i saw no warning label on pack careful radioactive....

that would explain why old timer's smoked every day till they died of old age 80+
vs our generation now.

we need to sue there butt's for this.

I love smoking...pity its bad for me...but then again, if I ate 3 cheeseburgers a day and didnt counter it with something, that would kill me much faster.

I tried growing my own tobacco...worked fine except that it didnt stay lit and it tasted/smelled like raw sewage.

I purchased a little roller machine (15 bucks), some tubes (4 bucks for 200) and pipe tobacco (14 bucks for about a carton worth)...now I just roll pipe tobacco and voila...a carton of smokes for under 20 bucks weekly (minus the initial roller machine investment). I would suggest if your strapped for cash and want to reduce cost, go this route...its the same damned thing as the $50 cartons...and it gives you something to do that is actually curiously fun.

I would like to find out the secret to growing my own tobacco that makes it burn normally however...then I would only be paying about 4 bucks a carton for the tubes (which are not subject to the slow burn law nonsense) and not have to worry about what new and unique chemicals are put into these things.

To quote a favorite song by Tex Ritter
"Ive smoked all my life and it aint killed me yet..."

And you think these metal fertilizers are just used in growing tobacco? I have noticed how unnaturally colorful vegetables have gotten over the last thirty years...

Just a thought.

I did a lot of research and experimentation that first year of growing my own. I got it down to the point that, unless is was a so-so batch, it was nearly identical to store bought cigarette tobacco. I even rolled cigars that, although gross, it smelled and tasted like a cigar. I did notice that the home grown tobacco made me pretty light headed compared to store bought. I can send my my recipe to anyone who wants it. I grew Virginia tobacco that time, this year I'm growing Burley tobacco as well, both are blended to make most cigarette blends.

Crazy! Thanks TS, i'm gonna send a link to my cousin's so they can read this...(otherwise they won't believe me)

reply to post by SaturnFX


i think the tobacco as well as having to go though a drying stage. also needs to be cured for a month or so. in a special container.

i have seen online people converting old freezers.

This may sound like a silly question, and it may amount to nothing at all, but:

Does anyone have a Geiger Counter they could read on a cigarette? If so, Then try it on a pack, then on a carton?
Spice it up a lil with variety and try it on a medium sized tin of Bugler rolling tobacco perhaps?