If you needed another reason to quit the nasty habit of smoking perhaps this is it. Urea is found in cigarettes. Well, it’s not actually found in cigarettes. Saying that it is found would be like saying that it was either lost in them or somehow lurking about like an undiscovered piece of landscape. You can’t really say something can be found if you know that they have been placed there in the first place. Yes, that’s right. Not only is urea found in cigarettes, it has been placed there on purpose. But why?
For those who are wondering what the hell urea is, and those of you who are smokers may feel a little sick very soon, urea is a chemical found in your urine. Feeling a little put off cigarettes yet? Well, being a part of urine is probably the best this can get.
Urea, apart from being in your pee, can also be artificially synthesised in a laboratory, and relatively cheaply at that. Most of the time it is colorless and odorless, until it is mioxed with water. Itis then that it becomes especially foul to the senses.
It can be used for a large number of uses beyond urine and cigarettes. One of the most common uses is as a fertilizer. It’s commonly used in citrus fruits to make the fruits sweeter. In fact, if you have a fruit tree in your backyard you can improve the taste of the fruit by peeing on it every day.
Urea is also used in plastics, animal feed, an explosive known as urea nitrate and an adhesive used in plywood construction. It can also be used in truck and car engines for pollution reduction from the exhaust. It’s also used for de-icing and resurfacing snowboards, and in the hair removal agent, NAIR. It is also often used as a fireproofing agent, teeth whitening, yeast, dishsoap and textile dyes.
Clearly this little chemical has a long list of uses, but it is still not something that you should be willing to put into your lungs. And to answer our question from the outset. Urea is found in cigarettes to enhance the flavor.
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