The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

Unlit filtered f6 brand cigarettes from Germany

A cigarette (from the French for "small cigar". Cigar comes, through the Spanish and Portuguese cigarro, from the Mayan siyar; "to smoke rolled tobacco leaves")^[1] is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well. Most modern manufactured cigarettes are filtered and include reconstituted tobacco and other additives.^[2]

The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette but can apply to similar devices containing other herbs, such as cloves or cannabis. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping, which is normally white, though other colors are occasionally available. Cigars are typically composed entirely of whole-leaf tobacco.

Rates of cigarette smoking vary widely, and have changed considerably over the course of history — since cigarettes were first widely used in the mid-20th century. While rates of smoking have over time leveled off or declined in the developed world, they continue to rise in developing nations.^[3][4]

Overview[link]

Cigarettes like other tobacco products, do carry serious health effects with them. Nicotine, the primary psychoactive chemical in tobacco and therefore cigarettes, is addictive.^[5] About half of cigarette smokers die of tobacco-related disease^[6] and lose on average 14 years of life.^[5] Cigarette use by pregnant women has also been shown to cause birth defects, including mental and physical disabilities.^[7] Second-hand smoke from cigarettes has been shown to be injurious to bystanders,^{[8][9][10][11]} which has led to legislation that has banned their smoking in many workplaces and public areas. Cigarettes are the most frequent source of fires leading to loss of lives in private homes, which has prompted the European Union and the United States to ban cigarettes that are not fire standard compliant by 2011.^[12][13]

History[link]

A reproduction kokok a carving from the temple at Palenque, Mexico, depicting a Mayan priest smoking from a smoking tube.

The earliest forms of cigarettes were largely indistinguishable from their predecessor, the cigar. Cigarettes have been attested in Central America around the 9th century in the form of reeds and smoking tubes. The Maya, and later the Aztecs, smoked tobacco and various psychoactive drugs in religious rituals and frequently depicted priests and deities smoking on pottery and temple engravings. The cigarette and the cigar were the most common methods of smoking in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America until recent times.^[14]

The South and Central American cigarette used various plant wrappers; when it was brought back to Spain, maize wrappers were introduced, and by the 17th century, fine paper. The resulting product was called papelate and is documented in Goya's paintings La Cometa, La Merienda en el Manzanares, and El juego de la pelota a pala (18th century).^[15]

By 1830, the cigarette had crossed into France, where it received the name cigarette; and in 1845, the French state tobacco monopoly began manufacturing them.^[15]

In the English-speaking world, the use of tobacco in cigarette form became increasingly popular during and after the Crimean War, when British soldiers began emulating their Ottoman Turkish comrades and Russian enemies, who had begun rolling and smoking tobacco in strips of old newspaper for lack of proper cigar-rolling leaf.^[15] This was helped by the development of tobaccos that are suitable for cigarette use, and by the development of the Egyptian cigarette export industry.

Francisco Goya's La Cometa, depicting a (foreground left) man smoking an early quasi-cigarette.

Cigarettes may have been initially used in a manner similar to pipes and cigars and not inhaled; for evidence, see the Lucky Strike ad campaign asking consumers "Do You Inhale?" from the 30's. As cigarette tobacco became milder and more acidic inhaling may have become more agreeable. On the other hand, Moltke noticed in the 1830s (cf. Unter dem Halbmond) that Ottomans (and he himself) inhaled the Turkish tobacco and Latakia from their pipes^[16] (which are both initially sun-cured, acidic leaf varieties).

The widespread smoking of cigarettes in the Western world is largely a 20th century phenomenon – at the start of the century the per capita annual consumption in the USA was 54 cigarettes (with less than 0.5% of the population smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year), and consumption there peaked at 4,259 per capita in 1965. At that time about 50% of men and 33% of women smoked (defined as smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year).^[17] By 2000, consumption had fallen to 2,092 per capita, corresponding to about 30% of men and 22% of women smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year, and by 2006 per capita consumption had declined to 1,691;^[18] implying that about 21% of the population smoked 100 cigarettes or more per year.

German doctors were the first to identify the link between smoking and lung cancer which led to the first anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany.^[19][20] During World War I and World War II, cigarettes were rationed to soldiers. During the Vietnam War, cigarettes were included with C-ration meals. In 1975 the U.S. government quit putting cigarettes in military rations. During the second half of the 20th century, the adverse health effects of tobacco smoking started to become widely known and text-only health warnings became commonplace on cigarette packets. Warnings became prevalent but unpopular, mainly due to the political influences held by tobacco growers. The United States has not yet implemented graphical cigarette warning labels, which are considered a more effective method to communicate to the public the dangers of cigarette smoking.^[21] Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Singapore and Turkey however, have both textual warnings and graphic visual images displaying, among other things, the damaging effects tobacco use has on the human body.

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. Synthetic particulate filters remove some of the tar before it reaches the smoker.

Manufacturing[link]

Diagram of a cigarette.
1. Filter made of 95% cellulose acetate.
2. Tipping paper to cover the filter.
3. Rolling paper to cover the tobacco.
4. Tobacco blend.

Modern commercially manufactured cigarettes are seemingly simple objects consisting mainly of a tobacco blend, paper, PVA glue to bond the outer layer of paper together, and often also a cellulose acetate–based filter.^[22] While the assembly of cigarettes is straightforward, much focus is given to the creation of each of the components, in particular the tobacco blend. A key ingredient that makes cigarettes more addictive is the inclusion of reconstituted tobacco, which has additives to make nicotine more volatile as the cigarette burns.^[2]

Paper[link]

The paper for holding the tobacco blend may vary in porosity to allow ventilation of the burning ember or contain materials that control 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 filter stabilize the mouthpiece from saliva and moderate the burning of the cigarette as well as the delivery of smoke with the presence of one or two rows of small laser-drilled air holes.^[23]

According to Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at the University of Sydney, the burning agents in cigarette paper are responsible for fires and reducing them would be a simple and effective means of dramatically reducing the ignition propensity of cigarettes.^[24] Since the 1980s, prominent cigarette manufacturers such as Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds developed fire-safe cigarettes but did not market them.^{[citation needed]}

The burn rate of cigarette paper is regulated through the application of different forms of micro crystalline cellulose to the paper.^[25] Cigarette paper has been specially engineered by creating bands of different porosity to create "fire-safe" cigarettes. These cigarettes have a reduced idle burning speed which allows them to self-extinguish.^[26] This fire-safe paper is manufactured by mechanically altering the setting of the paper slurry.^[27]

New York was the first U.S. state to mandate that all cigarettes manufactured or sold within the state comply with a fire safe standard. Canada has passed a similar nation-wide mandate based on the same standard. All U.S. states are gradually passing fire-safe mandates.^[28]

European Union wishes to ban in 2011 cigarettes that are not fire-safe. According to a study made by European Union in 16 European countries, 11,000 fires were due to people carelessly handling cigarettes between 2005 and 2007. This caused 520 deaths and 1600 people injured.^[29]

Tobacco blend[link]

The process of blending gives the end product a consistent taste from batches of tobacco grown in different areas of a country that may change in flavor profile from year to year due to different environmental conditions.^[30]

Modern cigarettes produced after the 1950s, although composed mainly of shredded tobacco leaf, use a significant quantity of tobacco processing by-products in the blend. Each cigarette's tobacco blend is made mainly from the leaves of flue-cured brightleaf, burley tobacco, and oriental tobacco. These leaves are selected, processed, and aged prior to blending and filling. 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").^[30] To improve the economics of producing cigarettes, these by-products are processed separately into forms where they can then be possibly 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.^[31]
• Reconstituted leaf (RL) sheet: a paper-like material made from recycled tobacco fines, tobacco stems and "class tobacco", which consists of tobacco particles less than 30 mesh in size (~0.599 mm) that are collected at any stage of tobacco processing.^[32] RL is made by extracting the soluble chemicals in the tobacco by-products, processing the leftover tobacco fibers 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. At this stage ammonium additives are applied to make reconstituted tobacco an effective nicotine delivery system.^[2]
• Expanded (ES) or improved stems (IS): ES are rolled, flattened, and shredded leaf stems that are expanded by being soaked in water and rapidly heated. Improved stems follow the same process but are simply steamed after shredding. Both products are then dried. These two products look similar in appearance but are different in taste.^[30]

In recent years, the manufacturers' pursuit of maximum profits has led to the practice of using not just the leaves, but also recycled tobacco offal^[2] and the plant stem.^[33] The stem is first crushed and cut to resemble the leaf before being merged or blended into the cut leaf.^[34] According to data from the World Health Organization,^[35] the amount of tobacco per 1000 cigarettes fell from 2.28 pounds in 1960 to 0.91 pounds in 1999, largely as a result of reconstituting tobacco, fluffing and additives.

A recipe-specified combination of brightleaf, burley-leaf and oriental-leaf tobacco will be mixed with various additives to improve its flavours.

Additives[link]

Various additives are combined into the shredded tobacco product mixtures, with humectants such as propylene glycol or glycerol, as well as flavouring products and enhancers such as cocoa solids, licorice, tobacco extracts, and various sugars, which are known collectively as "casings". The leaf tobacco will then be shredded, along with a specified amount of small laminate, expanded tobacco, BL, RL, ES and IS. A perfume-like flavour/fragrance, called the "topping" or "toppings", which is most 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.^[30] Additionally, they replace lost flavours due to the repeated wetting and drying used in processing the tobacco. Finally the tobacco mixture will be filled into cigarettes tubes and packaged.

A list of 599 cigarette additives, created by five major American cigarette companies, were approved by the Department of Health and Human Services in April 1994. None of these additives are listed as ingredients on the cigarette pack(s). Chemicals are added for organoleptic purposes and many boost the addictive properties of cigarettes, especially when burned.^[36]

One of the chemicals on the list, ammonia, helps convert bound nicotine molecules in tobacco smoke into free nicotine molecules. This process is known as freebasing which enhances the effect of the nicotine on the smoker.^[37]

Taxation[link]

Cigarettes are a significant source of tax revenue in many localities. This fact has historically been an impediment for health groups seeking to discourage cigarette smoking, since governments seek to maximize tax revenues. Furthermore, some countries have made cigarettes a state monopoly, which has the same effect on the attitude of government officials outside the health field.^[38] In the United States, cigarettes are taxed substantially, but the states are a primary determinant of the total tax rate. Generally, states that rely on tobacco as a significant farm product tend to tax cigarettes at a low rate.^[39] It has been shown that higher prices for cigarettes discourage smoking. Every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduced youth smoking by about seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by about four percent.^[40] Thus increased cigarette taxes are proposed as a means to reduce smoking. Coupled with the federal cigarette tax of $1.01 per pack, total cigarette-specific taxes range from $1.18 per pack in Missouri to $6.86 per pack in New York City. States also charge sizable settlement payments to tobacco companies, and the federal government levies user fees to fund FDA regulatory measures over tobacco. While these charges are not cigarette-specific, tobacco companies are ultimately forced to pass on those costs to their consumers. Lastly, most jurisdictions apply sales tax to the full retail price of cigarettes.

In the UK, many people now^[when?] illegally import cigarettes,^{[citation needed]} or buy those illegally imported, due to the increasing tax. A pack is less than half the price in some other countries, making illegal importers a large profit, while still providing comparatively very cheap cigarettes. The average price for 20 legal cigarettes is between £5.00 and £6.00, while imported packs are sold for less than £3; this is due to the fact that the large majority of the sale price of a legitimate pack is tax.

Sales[link]

A Woolworths supermarket cigarette counter in New South Wales, Australia. Australia has recently^[when?] prohibited the display of cigarettes in retail outlets, country wide.

Cigarette advertising[link]

Tobacco advertising can be seen in the United States as early as the year the Constitution was ratified, as local tobacco companies placed advertisiements in local newspapers. However, these advertisements were primarily for tobacco and snuff, with cigarette advertising not becoming prominent until the late 1800s upon the invention of two important technologies. First, color lithography was invented in the late 1870s which revolutionized advertising for cigarette companies who could now strengthen and promote their identities to consumers. Now companies could make collectible cigarette cards with every cigarette pack and these cards became very popular. They often pictured people such as movie stars, athletes, and even Native American chiefs. However, these collectible cards were eventually discontinued to save paper during World War II. The second invention was a cigarette-making machine developed in the 1880s that vastly increased the productivity of cigarette companies, who went from making approximately 40,000 hand-rolled cigarettes daily to around 4 million.^[41]

The decades in the 20th century prior to World War II consisted primarily of full page, color magazine and newspaper advertisements. Many companies created slogans for their specific cigarettes and also gained endorsements from famous men and women. Some advertisements even contained children or doctors in their efforts to sway new customers to their specific brand. Much of these advertisements sought to make smoking appear fashionable and modern to men and women. Also, since the health effects of smoking weren't entirely proven at this time, the only real opposing argument to smoking was made on moral grounds. However, there were still a substantial amount of doctors and scientists who believed there was a health risk associated with smoking cigarettes.^[42] During World War II, cigarettes were included in American soldier's C-rations since many tobacco companies sent the soldiers cigarettes for free. Cigarette sales reached an all time high at this point, as cigarette companies were not only able to get soldiers addicted to nicotine, but specific brands also found a new loyal group of customers as soldiers who smoked their cigarettes returned from the war.^[43]

After World War II, cigarette companies advertised frequently on television programs. To combat this move by the cigarette companies, the Federal Communications Commission required television stations to air anti-smoking advertisements at no cost to the organizations providing such advertisements.In 1970, Congress took their anti-smoking initiative one step further and passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, banning the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio starting on January 2, 1971.After the television ban, most cigarette advertising took place in magazines, newspapers, and on billboards. However, in 1999 all cigarette billboard advertisements were replaced with anti-smoking messages, with some of these anti-smoking messages playing parodies of cigarette companies advertising figures and slogans. Since 1984, cigarette companies have also been forced to place Surgeon's General warnings on all cigarette packs and advertisements because of the passing of the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act.^[44] Restrictions on cigarette companies became even tighter in 2010 with the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The act prohibits tobacco companies from sponsoring sports, music, and other cultural events and also prevents the display of their logos or products on T-shirts, hats, or other apparel.^[45] The constitutionality of both this act and the Food and Drug Administration's new graphic cigarette warning labels are being questioned under cigarette companies' first amendment rights.^[46]

In many parts of the world tobacco advertising and sponsorship has been outlawed. The ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the EU in 2005 has prompted Formula One Management to look for races in areas that allow the tobacco sponsored teams to display their livery. As of 2007, only the Scuderia Ferrari retains tobacco sponsorship, continuing their relationship with Marlboro until 2011. In the United States, bolder advertising restrictions took effect on June 22, 2010.

In some jurisdictions, such as the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the retail store display of cigarettes is completely prohibited if persons under the legal age of consumption have access to the premises.^[47] In Ontario, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, The ACT, and Quebec, Canada, the display of tobacco is prohibited for everyone, regardless of age, as of 2010. This includes non-cigarette products such as cigars and blunt wraps.^[48][49]

Purchase restrictions[link]

Beginning on April 1, 1998, the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to people under the state purchase age has been prohibited by law in all 50 states of the United States. The age is 19 in Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey, Utah, and Nassau, Suffolk, and Onondaga counties in New York.^[50][51] The intended effect of this is to prevent older high school students from purchasing cigarettes for their younger peers. Legislation was pending as of 2004 in some other states. In Massachusetts,^[52] parents and guardians are allowed to give cigarettes to minors, but sales to minors are prohibited.

Similar laws exist in many other countries. In Canada, most of the provinces require smokers to be 19 years of age to purchase cigarettes (except for Quebec and the prairie provinces, where the age is 18). However, the minimum age only concerns the purchase of tobacco, not use. Alberta, however, does have a law which prohibits the possession or use of tobacco products by all persons under 18, punishable by a $100 fine. Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Pakistan have a nationwide ban on the selling of all tobacco products to people under the age of 18.

Tabak-Trafik in Vienna. Since 1 January 2007, all cigarette machines in Austria must attempt to verify a customer's age by requiring the insertion of a debit card or mobile phone verification.

Since 1 October 2007, it has been illegal for retailers to sell tobacco in all forms to people under the age of 18 in three of the UK's four constituent countries (England, Wales and Scotland) (rising from 16). It is also illegal to sell lighters, rolling papers and all other tobacco-associated items to people under 18. It is not illegal for people under 18 to buy or smoke tobacco, just as it was not previously for people under 16; it is only illegal for the said retailer to sell the item. The age increase from 16 to 18 came into force in Northern Ireland on 1 September 2008. In the Republic of Ireland, bans on the sale of the smaller ten-packs and confectionery that resembles tobacco products (candy cigarettes) came into force on May 31, 2007 in a bid to cut underaged smoking. The UK Department of Health plans to follow suit with the ten-pack ban.

Most countries in the world have a legal vending age of 18. Some exceptions are Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands and Gibraltar, where the age is 16. Since January 1, 2007, all cigarette machines in public places in Germany must attempt to verify a customer's age by requiring the insertion of a debit card. Turkey, which has one of the highest percentage of smokers in its population,^[53] has a legal age of 18. Japan is one of the highest tobacco-consuming nations, and requires purchasers to be 20 years of age (suffrage in Japan is 20 years old).^[54] Since July 2008, Japan has enforced this age limit at cigarette vending machines through use of the taspo smart card. In other countries, such as Egypt, it is legal to use and purchase tobacco products regardless of age.^{[citation needed]} Germany raised the purchase age from 16 to 18 on the 1 September 2007.

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 their own or no ID. If the vendor then completes the sale, the store is issued a fine.^[55] Similar enforcement practices are regularly performed by Trading Standards Officers in the UK and the Gardaí Siochana, the police force of the Republic of Ireland.^[56]

Consumption[link]

As of 2002, approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year and are smoked by over 1.1 billion people or greater than one-seventh of the world population. While smoking rates have leveled off or declined in developed nations, they continue to rise in developing parts of the world. Smoking rates in the United States have dropped by half from 1965 to 2006 falling from 42% to 20.8% of adults.^[3] In the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year.^[4]

Source: World Health Organization estimates, 2000