A thin roll of finely-cut tobacco, wrapped in paper, used for smoking. The origins of the cigarette lie in Central and South America, where native Indians wrapped crushed tobacco leaves in a reed or vegetable casing. Spanish explorers then introduced the practice to Europe in the form of the cigar. By the 16th-c, cigarillos (little cigars) had emerged, re-using the tobacco found in discarded cigar butts by wrapping it in paper. Cigarettes (the term is French) spread throughout Europe in the following century. The first-cigarette making machine was devised by James Bonsack in the USA in 1880.
A cigarette is a tobacco product manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves, which are rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 120 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter). The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smolder for the purpose of inhalation of its smoke from the other (usually filtered) end, which is inserted in the mouth. They are sometimes smoked with a cigarette holder. The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette but can apply to similar devices containing other herbs, such as cannabis.
A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its smaller size (hence the name), use of processed leaf, and white paper wrapping; Cigarettes were largely unknown in the English-speaking world before the Crimean War, when British soldiers began emulating their Ottoman Turkish comrades, who resorted to rolling their tobacco with newsprint.
History
The cigarette was named some time in the 18th century: beggars in Seville began to pick from the ground the cigar ends left by the señoritos (rich young men), wrapped the tobacco remains with paper and smoked them.
The use of tobacco in cigarette form became increasingly popular during and after the Crimean War. This was helped by the development of tobaccos that are suitable for cigarette use. During the second half of the 20th century, the adverse health effects of cigarettes started to become widely known and text-only health warnings became commonplace on cigarette packets. The United States has yet to implement graphics-based cigarette warning labels, which is a more effective method to communicate to the public the dangers of cigarette smoking.
The cigarette has evolved much since its conception; for example, the thin bands that travel transverse to the "axis of smoking" (thus forming circles along the length of the cigarette) are alternate sections of thin and thick paper to facilitate effective burning when being drawn, and retard burning when at rest.
Manufacturing
Commercially manufactured cigarettes are relatively simple objects consisting mainly of a tobacco blend, paper, PVA glue, and often also a cellulose acetate based filtre. While the assembly of cigarettes is straightforward, much focus is given to the creation of each of the components, in particular, the tobacco blend.
Paper
The paper for holding the tobacco blend may vary in porosity to allow ventilation of the burning ember or contain materials that controls the burning rate of the cigarette and stability of the produced ash. The papers used in tipping the cigarette (forming the mouthpiece) and surrounding the filtre stabilizes the mouthpiece from saliva and moderates the burning of the cigarette as well as the delivery of smoke with presence of one or two rows of small laser-drilled air holes.
Tobacco blend
The process of blending, like the blending of scotch and cognac, gives the end product a consistent taste from batches of tobacco grown in different areas of a country that may change in flavour profile from year to year due to different environmental conditions.
Modern cigarettes produced after the 1950s, due to technological innovations, are composed mainly of several tobacco leaf-types and their processing by-products. Each cigarette's tobacco blend is made mainly from the leaves of flue-cured brightleaf, burley tobacco, and oriental tobacco. The processing of brightleaf and burley tobaccos for tobacco leaf "strips" produces several by-products such as leaf stems, tobacco dust, and tobacco leaf pieces ("small laminate"). To improve the economics of producing cigarettes, these by-products are processed on the side into forms where they can then be added back into the cigarette blend without an apparent or marked change in the cigarette's quality. The most common tobacco by-products include:
Blended leaf (BL) sheet: A thin dry sheet cast from a paste made with tobacco dust collected from tobacco stemming, finely milled Burley leaf stem, and pectin Reconstituted leaf
(RL) sheet: A paper like material made from tobacco stems and "class tobacco," which consists of tobacco particles less than 30 mesh in size (~0.599 mm) that is collected at any stage of
tobacco processing. RL is made by extracting the soluble chemicals in the tobacco by-products, processing the left-over tobacco fibres from the extraction into a paper, and then reapplying the
extracted materials in concentrated form onto the paper in a fashion similar to what is done in paper sizing Expanded (ES) or Improved stems (IS): ES are rolled, flattened, and shredded
leaf stems are expanded by being soaked in water and rapidly heated. This is used to produce light cigarettes by reducing the density of the tobacco and thus maintain the size of a cigarette
while reducing the amount of tobacco used in each cigarette.A recipe specified combination of bright-leaf, burley and oriental leaf tobacco with be mixed with humectants such as propylene glycol or glycerol, as well as flavour products and enhancers such as cocoa, licorice, and various sugars. A perfume-like flavour/fragrance, often formulated by flavor companies, will then be blended into the tobacco mixture to improve the consistency in flavour and taste of the cigarettes associated with a certain brand name. Finally the tobacco mixture will be filled into cigarettes tubes and packaged.
Before the Second World War many manufacturers gave away collectible cards, one in each packet of cigarettes. This practice was discontinued to save paper during the war and was never generally reintroduced, though for a number of years Natural American Spirit cigarettes included "vignette" cards depicting endangered animals and American historical events; On April 1, 1970 President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, banning cigarette advertisements on television in the United States starting on January 2, 1971. However some tobacco companies attempted to circumvent the ban by marketing new brands of cigarettes as "little cigars";
Beginning on April 1, 1988, the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors under 18 is now prohibited by law in all fifty states of the United States. In Canada most of the provinces require smokers to be 19 years of age to purchase cigarettes (except for Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, where the age is 18).
In the UK, cigarettes can legally be sold only to people aged 16 and over. However it is not illegal for people under this age to buy (or attempt to buy) cigarettes, which means that only the retailer is breaking the law by selling to people under the age of 16.
Most countries in the world have a legal smoking age of 18. However, due to the prevalence of cigarette vending machines in the most public of places the effectiveness of an underage ban is in doubt.
Some police departments in the United States occasionally send an underaged teenager into a store where cigarettes are sold, and have the teen attempt to purchase cigarettes, with or without a "fake" ID.
Online cigarette stores
Online stores have recently appeared that offer foreign cigarettes to internet buyers.
Some online cigarette stores exist to sell tax-free cigarettes inside their own country as well.
This same action has also taken place in Wisconsin after the Wisconsin Department of Revenue received a list of several thousand buyers in that state from an online cigarette merchant.
What complicates this issue is that many online tobacco shops are owned by Native Americans and these stores are located on Native American territory.
MasterCard and American Express have refused to allow online cigarette stores to accept payment by credit-card .
Philip Morris Inc., USA fights against selling cigarettes online. PM is concerned about trademark infringement, age verification, domestic taxation of their licensed tobacco products available through mail-order from duty-free shops overseas, and losing market share to low-priced generic cigarette brands available on the Internet.
Contents and health effects
See also: Health effects of tobacco smoking and Health issues and the effects of cannabisSmoking has been linked to lung cancer by medical research institutions throughout the world (through the use of observational studies). Smoking men are 22 times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smoking men and smoking women are 12 times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smoking women. Cigarette smoking increases the risk for many types of cancer, including cancers of the lip, oral cavity, and pharynx;
Certain other lung disorders, like emphysema, are also linked to cigarette smoking. Long-term smokers tend to look older than non-smokers of the same age, because smoking can increase wrinkling in the skin.
Nicotine, the stimulant and active ingredient in cigarettes, is highly addictive. Children and pets may be poisoned from eating cigarettes or cigarette butts.
For many years the tobacco industry presented research of its own in an attempt to counter emerging medical research about the addictive nature and adverse health effects of cigarettes. A 2001 peer-reviewed article in the American Journal of Public Health accuses tobacco companies of using front groups and biased studies to downplay the health risks of smoking and secondhand smoke.
Many countries and jurisdictions have instituted public smoking bans. In New York City, smoking is forbidden in almost all workplaces, although in rare cases this ban is not enforced in some small neighborhood bars, establishments caught allowing smoking face stiff fines.
In 2004, smoking was outlawed in all public buildings in the state of Maine.
The 2004 ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in New Zealand met with initial resentment from some bar owners, but was widely welcomed by the public at large.
In 2005 in the state of Washington, smoking was banned in all business establishments, including bars and bowling alleys, and any place outdoors within 25 feet of a window, door, or ventilation intake.
On March 26, 2006, Scotland prohibited smoking in enclosed (more than 50% covered) public places, which as such, includes public buildings, workplaces, sports stadiums, bars and restaurants.
In many parts of the world tobacco advertising and even sponsorship of sporting events is not allowed. The ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the EU in 2005 has prompted the Formula One Management to look for races in areas that allow the heavily tobacco sponsored teams to display their livery, and has also led to some of the more popular races on the calendar being cancelled in favour of more tobacco friendly markets.
Carcinogens
See also: Chemicals in a cigaretteThere are 19 known carcinogenic compounds in cigarettes. Nitrosamine is a carcinogenic compound found in cigarette smoke but not in uncured tobacco leaves. published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed skeletons of cigarette smokers contained deposits of lead-210 and polonium-210. Moreover, others suggest there is not enough Polonium-210 in cigarette smoke to significantly impact lung cancer in smokers. Hecht, 1999)
Consumption
Approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year by the tobacco industry, smoked by over 1.1 billion people, which is more than 1/6 of the world's total population.
| Smoking Prevalence by Gender | ||
|---|---|---|
| PERCENT SMOKING | ||
| REGION | MEN | WOMEN |
| Africa | 29 | 4 |
| United States | 35 | 22 |
| Eastern Mediterranean | 35 | 4 |
| Europe | 46 | 26 |
| Southeast Asia | 44 | 4 |
| Western Pacific | 60 | 8 |
| (2000, World Health Organization estimates) | ||
Legal issues
Washington and New Jersey, United States smoking bans
In December 2005, it became illegal in Washington State to smoke inside a public building and within 25 feet of an entrance, window, or vent.
Uruguay bans smoking
In March 2006, it became illegal in Uruguay to smoke in enclosed public spaces.
This makes Uruguay the first country in South America to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces.
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