Cigarettes were pervasive in TV and advertising in the 50s, and David saw smoking as the norm in his generation. After decades of smoking, David, 56, quit after a diagnosis with Stage I lung cancer. David shares his experiences with overcoming lung cancer and his successful treatment and support at the St. Francis Cancer Center. Source; video description.

According to Wikipedia; “tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemical compounds, many of which are carcinogenic or otherwise toxic. One of these is a compound marketed as a rat poison.[9] A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. 

This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substances are considered carcinogens, but their carcinogenic activity is attributed to the radiation, for example gamma rays and alpha particles, which they emit.

Common examples of carcinogens are inhaled asbestos, certain dioxins, and tobacco smoke. Although the public generally associates carcinogenicity with synthetic chemicals, it is equally likely to arise in both natural and synthetic substances.[1] 

Tobacco And Radioactive Polonium Contamination 

Radioactive Polonium is 250 billion times more toxic than cyanide.

Radioactive polonium-210 contained in phosphate fertilizers is absorbed by the roots of plants (such as tobacco) and stored in its tissues.[69][70][71] Tobacco plants fertilized by rock phosphates contain polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation estimated to cause lung cancer deaths annually worldwide.[25][72][73]

For over 40 years, researchers and tobacco corporations have known that cigarettes contain radionuclides(1). The contamination is sourced in naturally occurring radioactive radon gas(2) which is absorbed and trapped in apatite rock(3). 

Apatite, or phosphate rock, is mined for the purpose of formulating the phosphate portion of most chemical fertilizers(4). Polonium releases ionizing alpha radiation which is 20 times more harmful than either beta or gamma radiation when exposed to internal organs(5). 

Lung cancer rates increased significantly during most of the 1900′s(6). It’s no coincidence that between 1938 and 1960, the level of polonium 210 in American tobacco tripled commensurate with the increased use of chemical fertilizers and Persistant Organic Pollutant (POP) accumulation(7). 

In 1982, tobacco researchers DiFranza and Winters concluded that smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes per day exposed a person to the same radiation as 300 chest x-rays per year(8). 

Due to improvements in X-ray technology and increasing levels of radionuclides in tobacco, the Institute of Medicine now estimates that a heavy smoker is exposed to the equivalent radiation as up to 2,000 chest X-rays every year(9). 

The National Institutes of Health state that tobacco is by far the largest source of radiation for the American public(10). Polonium is also present in chewing tobacco, benignly referred to as smokeless tobacco, and may contribute to the development of oral cancers(11). 

Tobacco And Radioactive Uranium Contamination

Uranium is another example of a contaminant often found in phosphate fertilizers (at levels from 7 to 100 pCi/g).[67] Eventually these heavy metals can build up to unacceptable levels and build up in vegetable produce.[62] Average annual intake of uranium by adults is estimated to be about 0.5 mg (500 μg) from ingestion of food and water and 0.6 μg from breathing air.[68]

Also, highly radioactive Polonium-210 contained in phosphate fertilizers is absorbed by the roots of plants and stored in its tissues; tobacco derived from plants fertilized by rock phosphates contains Polonium-210.[69][70][71][72][73][74]

Tobacco And Radioactive Cesium Contamination 

There is another source of radiation from tobacco, and that is when tobacco is grown in radiation contaminated areas, such as around Chernobyl, TMI and Fukushima, just to name a few. 

Around Fukushima, “tobacco leaves have been tested and contain up to a few hundred Bq/kg of Cesium. For example, here are a few Cesium tests done on a few tobacco leaf farms; 

Nasushiobara leaf; 389 Bq/kg, and 338 Bq/kg 

Nasu-machi, Shirakawa leaves 201Bq/kg 

These tobacco leaves were grown in Miyagi Prefecture, Ibaraki Prefecture, Gunma Prefecture, and Tochigi Prefecture. 

By inhaling the smoke from these contaminated leaves, radioactive, cancer causing Cesium goes directly into the lungs. 

http://portirland.blogspot.com/2012/02/2012.html

Annual Deaths From Tobacco Use And Radiation 

“Smoking is estimated to have caused an average of 443,000 deaths and 5.1 million years of potential life lost among the U.S. population each year from 2000 through 2004.

The estimated associated collective dose is more than 36 times that to the workers at all the U.S. nuclear power plants, U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons facilities, and crews of all the vessels in the U.S. Nuclear Navy. This unnecessary source of lung cancer deaths demands the utmost attention of the radiation protection and public health professions.” 

Pubmed Data : Health Phys. 2010 Nov ;99(5):674-9. PMID: 20938238 

Lung Cancer Symptoms