Cigarettes can Make you Sick in More Ways than you Know

For years people have known about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Average cigarettes contain almost 3,000 different chemicals and heavy metals, as well as tar and nicotine, and commonly known side effect of smoking cigarettes range from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to lung cancer. But recent studies have shown that cigarettes also contain hundreds of strains of bacteria, which can cause diseases such as the common cold, asthma, and influenza, among others.

It was already known that bacteria exist on tobacco leaves, but scientists have discovered that the fermenting process that is done to turn natural tobacco into what is found in cigarettes causes an ideal environment for bacteria to grow and prosper. There have been up to 15 different species of bacteria discovered in cigarettes, such as Acinetobacter, Bacillus, Burkholderia, Clostridium, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Serratia, and these strains were found in 90% of the tested cigarettes.

With at least 1 billion smokers over the age of 15 in the world, scientists must keep studying these bacteria to see what other diseases they might cause. Also, with this new information being available to the public, maybe some people will stop smoking once they realize that they aren't just inhaling chemicals and tar, but living bacteria as well.

-Ethan