Ammonia

In addition to being an irritant, ammonia raises the pH of the smoke of American cigarettes from the typical pH 6, explains Dietrich Hoffmann, associate director of the American Health Foundation. "At pH 6, all of the nicotine is present as a salt. When the pH is increased beyond 6.5, going up to pH 8 or 8.5, one obtains a greater portion of the nicotine in the unprotonated, the most toxic form. Unprotonated nicotine is much more quickly absorbed through the mucous membranes of the oral cavity. In other words, one gets a much greater nicotine kick than if one inhales the protonated nicotine in the acidic smoke. So there comes the added toxicity," Hoffmann says. In the list of ingredients added to cigarettes compiled by the six major American cigarette manufacturers, ammonia is listed only as a naturally occurring substance that plays a vital role in protein metabolism in animals and man. --Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 102, Number 9, September 1994

"Scientists have discovered that ammonia helps you absorb more nicotine, keeping you hooked on smoking." -- www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/features/health/tobaccotrial/inacigarette.htm

ammonia

\Am*mo"ni*a\, n. [From sal ammoniac, which was first obtaining near the temple of Jupiter Ammon, by burning camel's dung. See Ammoniac.] (Chem.) A gaseous compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, NH3, with a pungent smell and taste: -- often called volatile alkali, and spirits of hartshorn.

ammonia

n 1: a water solution of ammonia [syn: ammonia water, ammonium hydroxide] 2: a pungent gas compounded of nitrogen and hydrogen