Part 20: Cigarettes Are Literally Radioactive
Biology & Survival Series - Cigarettes
Most smokers know cigarettes contain tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, arsenic, and a long list of cancer-causing chemicals. Fewer know that smoking kills your sperm, and far fewer still know that modern cigarettes contain radioactive polonium-210 and lead-210.
A CDC page admits lead-210 and polonium-210 are found in high-phosphate fertilizers used on crops. Those radioactive substances end up in tobacco and cigarette smoke and then get trapped in the lungs, where sticky tar helps hold them in place.
So while tobacco itself and smoking have been around for a long time - the modern cigarette is relatively new. The tobacco leaf now moves through an industrial system contaminated by radioactive fertilizers, and the industry have spent decades hiding the truth from the public.
A Brief History of The Lie
By 1964, outside researchers had already reported polonium-210 in tobacco smoke.
A 1966 Science paper found that the major portion of lead-210 in tobacco plants was probably absorbed through the roots. The same paper found that leaf development and curing conditions affected the final amount of polonium-210 in tobacco leaf.
Obviously, tobacco companies did not respond by warning smokers. During the 1960s, they had confirmed polonium in tobacco and smoke in internal research, and by 1968 Philip Morris had verified its own cigarettes were contaminated. In 1967, R.J. Reynolds blocked publication of internal polonium research by scientist Stewart Bellin because the issue was too dangerous from a smoking-and-health standpoint. In 1978, a Philip Morris handwritten note warned against “waking a sleeping giant” by drawing attention to polonium. In 1985, an R.J. Reynolds attorney memo admitted the company had denied publication of internal research that would highlight issues “problematic” for the industry, specifically including polonium.
By the time a 2008 American Journal of Public Health paper reconstructed the record from internal tobacco documents, the pattern was unmistakable: they knew cigarettes carried radioactive material, they investigated it, they failed to remove it, and they kept the public in the dark rather than jeopardize sales.
The Radioactive Dose is Staggering
A now-deleted NIH Office of Research Services radiation training page (archived on the Wayback Machine) estimated that at 30 cigarettes a day, smokers could receive 16,000 mrem a year to the bronchial epithelium from tobacco products. The same page listed a chest X-ray at 8 mrem. That works out to about 2,000 chest X-rays’ worth of radiation, concentrated in the airway tissue taking the hit, for every year of smoking.
How Smoking and Radiation Affect Fertility
Smoking was already a fertility problem before you add radiation to the picture.
A 2015 evidence-based review on smoking and male infertility found that cigarette smoke harms sperm, with oxidative stress playing a major role in the damage. Another 2015 review in the Asian Journal of Andrology found reduced semen quality, impaired spermatogenesis, reproductive hormone dysfunction, and impaired sperm function in smokers compared with nonsmokers.
Now add ionizing radiation.
A 2019 review found links between ionizing radiation exposure and decreased sperm motility, worse sperm morphology, greater DNA fragmentation, and changes in genomic methylation.
Vaping Might Not Be Any Better
While there are still no good studies on radiation in vaping fluid (you can guess why), the source is the same: it’s still made from the same tobacco plants contaminated with lead-210 and polonium-210. There’s no reason to assume that these tobacco companies have somehow purified vaping liquid when they couldn’t be bothered cleaning up regular cigarettes.
Without any evidence to the contrary, we should assume vaping also exposes you to radioactive poisoning.
Solutions
The obvious advice is don’t smoke.
But there’s less obvious advice too:
If you’re dating and want children, be aware that a partner who’s actively smoking or has a history smoking may have impaired fertility. This isn’t a hard and fast rule - smokers are able to have kids, but something to think about.
That also means avoiding secondhand smoke. About 50,000 Americans die every year from secondhand smoke. They’re not even smokers, they’re just near smoke. For anyone counting, that’s more than the 41,000 or so annual deaths in car accidents.
This is Part 20 of the Biology & Survival series, which covers the science showing that by 2045 the average person will become infertile, and explains all the reasons why, so that you can protect yourself, your children, and your grandchildren.
Very interesting. Thanks for posting. I have never smoked and can't stand being around smoke. But I wonder if smoking tobacco grown organically inside a greenhouse without any additives is not very harmful?
I'm very skeptical of statistics (example: 50,000 Americans die every year from secondhand smoke). If you think about it, there is absolutely no way to prove that. I also think we should be skeptical of most studies since they are often faked or find the result that the person that funded them is looking for.