nicotine content in cigarettes

[dikydave]

*puts down plate of tomato leaves*well that was close.

[Sonthert]

Unfortunately, potato and tomato leaves aren't as tasty to smoke as tobacco. Also, tobacco leaves are cured before use, as tomato and potato leaves would have to be. The solanaceous family also produces such chemicals as atropine, hyoscyamine and scopalamine. Atropine sulfate is a common cure for everything from drug overdose, to pink eye, to diverticulitis, to nerve gas poisoning and even cardiac arrest and sea sickness.People used to think tomatoes were poisonous because they are clearly from the nightshade family, whose edible relatives are few and far between. I'm not sure the nicotine content of the remaining sheesha is terribly important...you would need an initial amount, too, but again, how much of the smoke that is created do you actually intake?

[MrGuy]

inhale through cotton wool or toilet roll (or soemthing that totally filters it) and then exhale.inhale again normally, then exhale through some filter. measure the difference in nicotine on the filter - just an idea...still cant work out why im hypothesizing though, no-one's going to do it (no matter how much they should!!)

[Buford]

Tomato and potato plants also contain other toxic substances, namely solanine and demissine. These can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and constipation or diarrhea. If hydrolysed by being bruised or eaten, it can cause apathy, drowsiness, salivation, paralysis, circulatory and respiratory depression, unconsciousness and death. Green potatoes and the sprouts on tubers contain these alkaloids as well, but fortunately it takes a large quantity to poison a human.

[Lord Dorian]

To adress tangiers, the reason cancer is less prevalent amoung cigar smokers is  that  they do not inale, not  because of the lack of additives in  cigar tobbaco.  Incidently, they have a much higher rate of mouth cancer than cigarette smokers. The additives are present in small amounts and do little to affect how carcinoenic a product is.  The compounds  responisble  for most of the carcinogenic  effects of  tobbaco  are  nitrosamines, which are simply a  product of the combustion/heating of tobacco. Many people believe that these are less present in hookah smoke because of the low heat, but this is a misconception. Also, I would be more worried about the extremely high levels of heavy metals in the smoke, as well as several other exotic toxic compounds which are far more common in hookah smoke than I would be about nicotine. 

[ghostofdavid]

I died eating a poison tomato!  

[MrGuy]

unlucky ghostofdavid. lol

[Sonthert]

True, L.D., but their overall cancer rate is lower, and studies I've heard show that inhaling into your lungs or not doesn't change the cancer rate. In fact, the surgeon general's warning for cigars even warns that whether you inhale or not, cancer is not eliminated. The cancer rate of pipe smokers was roughly the same as non-smokers...even a little lower, so how does that fit into our theories?