Any surgery is a stressful and scary procedure for patients. While they can, and do, save many lives, things can go wrong during the procedure, the operations can exacerbate other underlying conditions and so on. However, surgeons have to deal with something patients might not even know exists: surgical smoke. But what is it, and what are the short and long-term effects on people?

The smoke is a typical component of most procedures: statistics show 95 percent of all surgeries produce surgical smoke to some degree.

Sometimes referred to by the name Bovie smoke, surgical smoke is a byproduct of the specialized, powered tools surgeons use to cut and otherwise manipulate body tissue. Specifically, surgical smoke is the result of surgeons using devices that raise a patient’s intracellular tissue temperature to at least 212 degrees Fahrenheit and cause vaporization.

Analysis has indicated surgical smoke is made up of 95 percent water and 5 percent other materials, including more than 80 known toxic ingredients. Many of these ingredients are carcinogenic. Some include dangerous body fluids, too.

Read the full article on surgical smoke by Megan Ray Nichols at The Naked Scientists