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Facts About Humans Smoking Paper

A variety of materials produce smoke in different forms. Combustible products that generate flame from an external source (as opposed to spontaneous combustion or for example dropping oxygen tanks on a cement floor) produce high amounts of elemental carbon. While most materials can burn, only a few materials can smolder; these materials include wood, paper and cardboard -- all are cellulose products manufactured from trees -- and flexible polyurethane foam. Smoke aerosols are produced from both flaming combustible and smoldering products, and range from droplets (mist) produced during smoldering to black soot during flaming combustion.

  1. Smoke Inhalation Injury

    • Inhaling smoke from paper or any burning product causes lung inflammation.

      Inhaling smoke's gas and particle components from paper or any burning product causes lung inflammation. Smoke inhalation injury due to respiratory failure is now the most common cause of death in burn centers, according to Dr. Robert H. Demling, M.D., of Harvard Medical School's Burn and Trauma Center. The smoke kills through thermal (heat) damage; poisoning and pulmonary irritation caused by carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide or other combustion products; or a combination of these.

    Smoke Toxicity from Paper, Wood and Cotton

    • Acrolein from burning paper breathed in concentrations over 50 ppm can cause sudden death.

      According to Dr. Demling, carbon monoxide poisoning leads to generalized tissue hypoxia (inadequate oxygen supply) and possible death when combining with hemoglobin. Another toxic gas, nitrogen dioxide, can attach to suspended particles. It is produced by the combustion of fabrics and cellulose (wood, paper or cotton) products. Dr. Demling says that the injury is mainly to lower airways and is delayed in onset by up to 72 hours. Breathing acrolein, a colorless liquid released when burning cellulose products, can enter the air and cause severe upper respiratory irritation; it can also be toxic to lower airway mucous membranes.

    Chemicals in Paper

    • Studies have found roll-ups are more likely to cause lung and esophageal cancer.

      The list of chemicals in paper is long. Chemical manufacturers depend on the pulp and paper industry to purchase resins, polymers, de-foamers, bleach, dyes, finishers, pesticides and other additives for manufacturing copy and printer paper.

      In January 2011, the Food and Drug Administration decreed that manufacturers of cigarette rolling papers (which are considered tobacco products) sold in the U.S. must submit their ingredients for approval or withdraw the product from the marketplace by March 2011, unless the papers have been sold in the U.S. since before February 15, 2007; those that were on the market before Feb. 15, 2007 were "grandfathered" in. According to Cristi Stark, Senior Regulatory Health Project Manager for the Office of Science Center for Tobacco Products of the FDA, "New products that do not meet the statutory premarket requirements cannot be legally marketed (misbranded and adulterated)."

    Considerations for Inhaling Burning Paper

    • Damaged alveoli, the tiny air sacs in the lungs, cannot absorb oxygen into the bloodstream.

      Since paper begins as timber, it follows that inhaling smoke from paper is dangerous and unhealthy. The distance between the end of rolled, tobacco-free paper and the mouth is shorter than that of inhaled smoke from a neighbor's wood-burning fireplace. Heat sucked into the lungs from burning material destroys cilia. These are cells with tiny "hairs" designed to remove trapped dust and pollutants from the lungs. If these cells along the epithelium are damaged, the lungs are more vulnerable to the effects of smoke aerosols, soot and ash.

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