Cigarette

A cigarette is a product consumed via smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves, which are combined with other additives including nicotine, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder. These are colloquially known as 'cigs', 'smokes', 'fags', 'squares', 'coffin nails', 'ciggies' or 'cancer sticks'. Cigarettes are proven to be addictive, a cause of lung cancer, and birth defects.^[1][2]

The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder for the purpose of inhalation of its smoke from the other (usually filtered) end, which is usually 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 (generally less than 120 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter), use of processed leaf, and white paper wrapping; cigars are typically composed entirely of whole leaf tobacco. 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.^[3]

Manufacturing

Commercially manufactured cigarettes are relatively simple objects consisting mainly of a tobacco blend, paper, PVA glue, and often also a cellulose acetate based filter.^[4] While the assembly of cigarettes is straightforward, much focus is given to the creation of each of the components, in particular, the tobacco blend, which often contains over one hundred ingredients.^[5]

Paper

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 stabilise 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. Cigarette paper is often bleached with chlorine. Burning of it can create dioxins that create carcinogenic effects.^[6]

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.^[7]

Modern cigarettes produced after the 1950s are composed mainly of shredded tobacco leaf 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. 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").^[7] 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^[8]
• 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.^[9] 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. Improved stems follow the same process but are simply steamed after shredding. Both produces are then dried. These two products look similar in appearance but are different in taste.^[7]

Whole tobacco can also be processed into a product called Expanded tobacco. The tobacco is "puffed", or expanded, by saturating it with Supercritical carbon dioxide and heating the CO₂ saturated tobacco to quickly evaporate the CO₂. This quick change of physical state by the CO₂ causes the tobacco to expand in a similar fashion as Polystyrene foam. 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.^[7]

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 flavouring products and enhancers such as cocoa, 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, know as "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.^[7] As well, 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.

In recent years, the tax policies of governments has led to the practice of using not just the leaves, but the plant stem also.^[10] The stem is first crushed and cut to resemble the leaf before being merged or blended into the cut leaf.^[11]

Sale

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; this series was discontinued in 2003. 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"; examples included Tijuana Smalls, which came out almost immediately after the ban took effect, and Backwoods Smokes, which reached the market in the winter of 1973–1974 and whose ads used the slogan, "How can anything that looks so wild taste so mild."

Beginning on April 1, 1998, the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to people under 18 is now prohibited by law in all fifty states of the United States. The legal age of purchase has been additionally raised to 19 in Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey, Utah, and Nassau, Suffolk, and Onondaga Counties in New York.^[12] Legislation was pending as of 2004 in some other states, including California to raise the age to 19 or even to 21. In Massachusetts, 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, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, 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, and Pakistan have a nationwide ban on the selling of all tobacco products to people under the age of 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. From October 2007 in England and Wales, the legal purchase age will rise to 18 — in line with alcohol — in an attempt to increase public health.^[13] Scotland and Northern Ireland will probably follow suit.

Most countries in the world have a legal smoking age of 18. Five exceptions are Austria, Belguim, Germany, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and The Netherlands, where the age is 16. Since January 1, 2007 all cigarette machines in public places in Germany must attempt to verify a customers age by requiring the insertion of a debit card. Turkey, which has one of the highest percentage of smokers in its population,^{[citation needed]} has a legal age of 18. Another curiosity is Japan, one of the highest tobacco consuming nations, which requires purchasers to be 20 years of age (Suffrage in Japan is 20 years old.^[14]) However, due to the prevalence of cigarette vending machines in the most public of places the effectiveness of an underage ban is in doubt.^{[citation needed]} In other countries, such as Egypt, India (especially Kerala), or Switzerland it is legal to use and purchase tobacco products regardless of age.

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.^[15] Similar enforcement practices are regularly performed by Trading Standards Officers in the UK.^[16]

Contents and health effects

See also: Health effects of tobacco smoking and Health issues and the effects of cannabis

Smoking has been linked to lung cancer by medical research institutions throughout the world (through the use of observational studies).^[2][17] 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.^{[citation needed]} Cigarette smoking increases the risk for many types of cancer, including cancers of the lip, oral cavity, and pharynx; esophagus; pancreas; larynx (voice box); lung; breast;[1] uterine cervix; urinary bladder; and kidney.^[2] Recent findings by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA suggest that people smoking more than 2 packs of cigarettes per day were 20 times more likely to develop cancer than those who smoked nothing.[2]

Certain other lung disorders, like emphysema, are also linked to cigarette smoking. Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, underweight, and deformed infants.^[1] Smoking also increases the chance of heart attacks and a variety of cancers. Nicotine, the stimulant and active ingredient in cigarettes,^[18][19] is highly addictive. Children and pets who eat tobacco or tobacco remnants may be poisoned by nicotine.^[2][20]

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. They have also tried, unsuccessfully, to create "safer" cigarettes that do not also have a drastically different "flavor" from regular ones. According to a 1994 prosecution memo written by Congressman Martin Meehan to former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, many of these studies were found to be flawed due to their strong bias and poor methodology. 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.

Although "Light" and "Ultra Light" cigarettes have less nicotine and tar and may seem to be safer than full flavor ones, but generally smokers will end up smoking more lights or ultra lights to "compensate" for the lack of full flavor and thus may end up inhaling more tar and nicotine in the end.

Carcinogens

See also: Chemicals in a cigarette and List of additives in cigarettes

There are over 19 known carcinogens in cigarettes.^[21] The following are some of the most potent carcinogens:

• Benzopyrene is a highly carcinogenic and mutagenic compound which is formed during the incomplete combustion of organic matter. Tobacco manufacturers have experimented with combustionless vaporizer technology to allow cigarettes to be consumed without the formation of carcinogenic benzopyrenes.^[22]

• Nitrosamine is a "deadly cancer-causing" compound found in cigarette smoke but not in uncured tobacco leaves. Nitrosamine forms on flue-cured tobacco leaves during the curing process through a chemical reaction between nicotine and other compounds contained in the uncured leaf and various oxides of nitrogen found in all combustion gases. Switching to indirect-fire curing has been shown to reduce nitrosamine levels to less than 0.1 parts per million.^[23][24]

Radioisotopes

Radioisotopes from the radon decay sequence are an oft cited but disputed cause of cigarette-induced lung cancers. In particular, the radioisotope polonium-210 has been measured in cigarette smoke at levels of 0.0263 - 0.036 pCi.^[25] Polonium-210, an alpha emitter, has been identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a cause of lung cancer in humans when inhaled, and is also a causal agent for diseases such as liver and bladder cancer, stomach ulcers, leukemia, cirrhosis of the liver, and cardiovascular disease.^[26] Furthermore, the majority of cigarette-induced lung cancers are adenocarcinomas, which are characteristic of the type of damage produced by alpha particle radiation such as that of polonium-210.^[27]

In 1982, Winters et al. published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed skeletons of cigarette smokers contained deposits of lead-210 and polonium-210.^[28] In 1983, NCAR radiochemist Ed Martell published a paper in which he experimentally calculated that smokers who die of lung cancer have been exposed to 80-100 rads (0.8 to 1 Gy) of radiation.^[29] Former United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop cited radioisotopes in cigarette smoke as being responsible for 90 percent of smoking-related deaths.^[30] The presence of radioactivity in cigarette smoke was used by Koop and other government officials to justify banning smoking from US-bound commercial airline flights.^[31]

Other studies suggest there is no correlation between levels of radioisotopes and smoking-related cancers, noting there are not enough Polonium-210 compounds in cigarette smoke to significantly impact lung cancer in smokers. (Bogden et al., 1981; Hecht, 1999; Hecht 1999 is a review which cites^[32]). NC 07

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 bans

Many governments impose restrictions on smoking tobacco, especially in public areas. The primary justification has been the alleged negative health effects of secondhand smoke. Laws vary by country and locality. See:

• Smoking bans
• Smoking bans by country

Cigarette advertising

In many parts of the world tobacco advertising and even sponsorship of sporting events has been outlawed. 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 favor of more tobacco friendly markets. However pressure from a small number of enthusiastic fans has seen some of these decisions reverse.

Footnotes

References

• Bogden JD, Kemp FW, Buse M, Thind IS, Louria DB, Forgacs J, Llanos G, Moncoya Terrones I. (1981) Composition of tobaccos from countries with high and low incidences of lung cancer. I. Selenium, polonium-210, Alternaria, tar, and nicotine. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 66: 27-31.
• Hecht SS (1999) Tobacco Smoke Carcinogens and Lung Cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute

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