Smoke from cigarette tip is more toxic than main inhaled smoke

Unpublished research by the tobacco industry shows that inhaled “sidestream” cigarette smoke–the smoke that rises from the tip of the burning cigarette between puffs–is more toxic than the “mainstream” smoke inhaled by the smoker.

Lighting up: the smoke from someone else's cigarette may be more toxic than your own

Credit: PAT SULLIVAN/AP/EMPICS

It found that inhaled fresh sidestream smoke, which makes up around 85% of secondhand smoke, is four times more toxic per gram of total particulate matter than inhaled mainstream smoke.

A report in Tobacco Control (2005;14: 396-404) describing the research conducted by Philip …