A cigarette is a small paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 120mm
in length and 10mm in diameter) of cured and shredded or cut tobacco
leaves which is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder for the
purpose of allowing inhalation of its smoke from the other end, inserted
in the mouth. The term, as commonly used, typically refers to a tobacco
cigarette, but can apply to similar devices containing other herbs,
such as cannabis (aka marijuana) (see below).
A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its smaller size, use of
processed leaf, and paper wrapping; cigars are typically composed
entirely of whole leaf tobacco. A small, cigarette-sized cigar is called
a cigarillo. 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.
Manufacture and ingredients
In practice, commercial cigarettes and cigarette tobaccos rarely contain
pure tobacco. Manufacturers often use a tremendous variety of additives
for a number of purposes, including maintaining blend consistency,
improving perceived blend quality, as preservatives, and even completely
changing the organoleptic qualities of the tobacco smoke. Some
cigarettes (known as kreteks, clove cigarettes, or simply cloves) have
cloves blended with the tobacco, to enhance the smoker's pleasure by
numbing the mouth and lungs and providing a mild euphoric effect. Lower
quality clove cigarettes simply have a clove essence added to the
tobacco.
In addition to additives, cigarette tobaccos, especially lower quality
blends, are often highly physically processed. During the original
processing of leaf for cigarettes, the leaves are deveined, and the
lamina is shredded or cut. Since the leaf is relatively dry at this
point, these processes result in a significant amount of tobacco dust.
Manufacturing operations have developed procedures for collecting this
dust and remaking it into usable material (known as reconstituted sheet
tobacco).
The removed leaf midveins, which are unsuitable for use in cigarettes in
their natural state, were historically discarded or spread on fields,
because of their high nitrogen content. Procedures have been developed,
however, to "expand" the stems, and process them for inclusion in the
cigarette blends. All these procedures allow cigarette manufacturers to
produce as many cigarettes as possible using the least amount of raw
materials as possible.
Packet of Cigarettes
The most common usage of the cigarette is tobacco smoke delivery. The
second most common usage of the cigarette is for marijuana smoke
delivery. The hand rolled cigarette is the most common form of marijuana
cigarette. Marijuana users will usually twist the ends of the cigarette
to prevent fine cut marijuana buds from falling out. Tobacco users who
roll their own cigarettes, however, will usually not twist the cigarette
at the ends; hand rolling tobacco is made in strands so doesn't have a
tendency to fall out.
Some cigarette smokers roll their own cigarettes by wrapping loose cured
tobacco in paper; most, however, purchase machine-made commercially
available brands, generally sold in small cardboard packages of 20
cigarettes. Commercial cigarettes usually contain a cellulose acetate or
cotton filter through which the smoker inhales the cigarette's smoke;
the filter serves to cool and somewhat clean the smoke.
These days, cigarette rolling machines are also becoming quite popular.
One can purchase tobacco in pouches or cans, usually at half the price
of what one would pay for a the same amount pre-rolled. One can get a
rolling machine that makes filterless, or "straight" cigarettes, or one
can purchase a machine that packs the tobacco into a pre-rolled form
with a filter. These filtered papers usually come in boxes of 200.
There are many different types of cigarettes,
Hand Rolled Cigarettes from Rolling papers
Unfiltered Cigarettes (no filter)
Regular Filtered Cigarettes (Regular Size)
Light Filtered Cigarettes (Are not as Strong)
Ultra-Light Filtered Cigarettes (Very Weak)
Regular Filtered 100s (Longer)
Light Filtered 100s (Longer, Are not as Strong)
Ultra-light Filtered 100s (Longer, Very Weak)
Regular Slim 120s (Very Long, Skinny)
Light Slim 120s (Very Long, Skinny, Are not as Strong)
Ultra-Light Slim 120s (Very Long, Skinny, Very Weak)
Menthols (Have smoke that induces a cooling sensation)
Slims (Cigarette is of smaller diameter)
Wides (Cigarette is of larger diameter)
Color Coding on Commercial Cigarette Packs
Red packs usually means Full Flavor
Gold packs usually means Lights
Light Blue, or Silver usually means Ultra-Lights
Green usually means Menthols
Very Dark Red usually means Unfiltered
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. On
April 1, 1970 President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette
Smoking Act into law banning cigarette television advertisements 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;" examples included Tijuana Smalls , which
came out almost immediately after the ban took effect, and Backwoods
Smokes , which hit the market in the winter of 1973-1974 and whose ads
used the slogan, "How can anything that looks so wild taste so mild?"
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
Alabama, Alaska and Utah the statutory age is 19, and legislation was
pending as of 2004 in some other states, including California and New
Jersey, to raise the age to 19, or even 21 in some cases). Similar laws
exist in many other countries as well. In Canada, most of the provinces
require smokers to be 19 years of age to purchase cigarettes (except for
Alberta and Quebec, where the age is 18). However, the minimum age only
concerns the purchase of tobacco, not use.
In Massachusetts, minors are allowed to smoke as long as the cigarette was given to them by a parent or guardian.
Premier was a smokeless cigarette released in the USA in May 1988 by RJR.
Contents of a cigarette
The leaves of the tobacco plant are first dried to make cigarettes, and
then treated with a variety of chemicals and many additional ingredients
are added. Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, many of
which are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic. Some of these include:
Acetone
Aluminum
Ammonia
Arsenic
Benzene
Butane
Cadmium
Caffeine
Carbon monoxide
Carbon dioxide
Chloroform
Copper
Cyanide
DDT/Dieldrin
Ethenol
Formaldehyde
Hydrogen cyanide
Lead
Magnesium
Methane
Methanol
Mercury
Nicotine
Tar
Vinyl Chloride
The amount of these ingredients can vary widely from one brand or type
of cigarette to the next. This is especially true of the tar and
nicotine content, the range of which is so extreme that an entire carton
of some brands of cigarettes (e.g., Carlton) might contain less tar
and/or nicotine than a single cigarette of a "full flavor" brand.
Consumption
Approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year by
the tobacco industry, smoked by over 1.1 billion people.
History
The use of tobacco in cigarette form is a relatively recent invention,
becoming increasingly popular after the Crimean War. This was helped by
the development of certain types of tobaccos that are suitable for
cigarette use. During World War I and World War II, cigarettes were
rationed to soldiers. During the second half of the 20th century, the
adverse health effects of cigarettes started to become widely known.
Health effects
Tobacco use, notably in cigarettes, is one of the major causes of
preventable death. Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of
miscarriage and underweight infants. Smoking increases the chance of
heart attacks and a variety of cancers. Smokers may look older than
nonsmokers of the same age, because smoking can increase wrinkling in
the skin. Smoking increases the metabolic rate, and thus can slightly
reduce a smoker's weight.
Nicotine is quite an effective appetite suppressant, and former smokers
often develop junk food habits as they attempt to satisfy their tobacco
cravings with snacks. One-third of those who stop smoking experience a
weight gain.
Cigarette smoking is one of the major causes of lung cancer, a major
cause of death amongst smokers. Certain other lung disorders, most
notably emphysema, are also blamed on cigarette smoking. The tobacco
industry tried for many years to deny this link, and to oppose medical
research that attempted to prove the link. The absolute risk of lung
cancer from smoking is on the order of one in eight, but the exact risk
level varies depending on intensity and duration of use, as well as
radon exposure, which is the primary other cause of lung cancer.
In addition, children and pets may be poisoned from eating cigarettes or cigarette butts.
