Glow In the Dark–While You Clean Toilet Bowls
I’m a gung-ho gardener. But I’m pretty paranoid about pesticides and very careful when I use them. What I didn’t know is that I smoke them.
Following are a few of the more than 4,000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
Ammonia
Toxic compound found in explosives, fertilizers, refrigerants and household cleaners, such as the stuff you clean toilets with
Arsenic
Used in rat poisons and weed killers
Benzene
A known carcinogen in DDT (banned insecticide), other insecticides and motor fuel
Butane
Used in lighter fluid and as a refrigerant
Carbon monoxide
Poisonous gas
Cadmium
Coating for trains, planes and offshore mining platforms–also used in batteries
Cyanide
Deadly poison, popular for bumping off rats
Ethyl furoate
Volatile substance that causes liver damage in animals
Formaldehyde
Remember those frogs in biology class? Also an ingredient in foam insulation and adhesives
Lead
Poisonous in high doses
Methoprene
Kills larvae of fire ants, fleas and mosquitoes. Unfortunately, it creates one-legged frogs.
Napthalene
This ingredient in mothballs is also called white tar.
Methyl isocyanate
In 1984, 2000 people died from exposure to this chemical in Bhopal, India.
Polonium
Also called Radium F, this carcinogenic radioactive element was discovered by Marie Curie. Go to the Los Alamos National Labs web site for more information.
