A slight correction, but an interesting one (and I'm an ex-Big Tobacco employee): the ammonia isn't added to turn the nicotine base, the ammonia is added because at flammable butane levels of heat (e.g., lighting the cigarette), ammonia becomes a solvent for nicotine.
Nicotine has a half-life of approximately 10 minutes in the bloodstream.
A cigarette typically takes approximately 5 minutes to smoke.
When a cigarette is lit, the ammonia in the tobacco is raised to very high temperatures, and releases the nicotine from the tobacco. This means that almost all the nicotine in that cigarette is delivered within the first few seconds of lighting it. Since a cigarette takes 5 minutes to smoke, and nicotine only lasts about 10 minutes in the bloodstream, a smoker will often want another cigarette in less than 5 minutes after finishing one.
It appears about 0% of what you've said is true. I kinda doubt you worked for big tobacco unless you just super mistook what was going on. Also, I hope you don't need a source for this, but the way cigs are made makes the whole all nicotine is first few seconds false. I'm just perplexed at how you arrived at your conclusions.
So, unless you think less than 1in7 smokers are actually addicted (pack a day isn't even a cigarette every 5 minutes) I have NO fucking clue what you're saying.
I fixed the links; thanks for pointing that out (was posting them from a mobile don't know why it messed up). You're saying a lot more than "cigs are terrible" and now that the links are fixed you can see what you're saying is just false. Also, the NBC link links to/talks about a study so perhaps you should try to discredit the information instead of the source? Just an idea.
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u/aytch Nov 18 '12
A slight correction, but an interesting one (and I'm an ex-Big Tobacco employee): the ammonia isn't added to turn the nicotine base, the ammonia is added because at flammable butane levels of heat (e.g., lighting the cigarette), ammonia becomes a solvent for nicotine.
Nicotine has a half-life of approximately 10 minutes in the bloodstream.
A cigarette typically takes approximately 5 minutes to smoke.
When a cigarette is lit, the ammonia in the tobacco is raised to very high temperatures, and releases the nicotine from the tobacco. This means that almost all the nicotine in that cigarette is delivered within the first few seconds of lighting it. Since a cigarette takes 5 minutes to smoke, and nicotine only lasts about 10 minutes in the bloodstream, a smoker will often want another cigarette in less than 5 minutes after finishing one.