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Tar is the common name for the resinous, partially combusted particulate matter produced by the
burning of tobacco and other plant material in the act of smoking. Tar is toxic and damages the
smoker's lungs over time through various biochemical and mechanical processes.[1] Tar also
damages the mouth by rotting and blackening teeth, damaging gums, and desensitizing taste
buds. Tar includes the majority of mutagenic and carcinogenic agents in tobacco
smoke. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), for example, are genotoxic via epoxidation.[2]
There is a common misconception that the tar in cigarettes is equivalent to the tar used on
roads.[citation needed] As a result of this, cigarette companies in the United States, when prompted to
give tar/nicotine ratings for cigarettes, usually use "tar," in quotation marks, to indicate that it is
not the road surface component. Tar is occasionally referred to as an acronym for total aerosol
residue,[3] a backronym coined in the mid-1960s.[4]
Tar, when in the lungs, coats the cilia causing them to stop working and eventually die, causing
such conditions as lung cancer as the toxic particles in tobacco smoke are no longer trapped by
the cilia but enter the alveoli directly. Thus, the alveoli cannot come through with the process that
is called gas exchange which is the cause of rough breathing.
The tar from cigarette smoke is similar to that of marijuana smoke.[5]
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