cigarette cigarette a cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. the cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opposite end. cigarette smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption. the term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette, but the word is sometimes used to refer to other substances, such as a cannabis cigarette or an herbal cigarette. a cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its usually smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping, which is typically white. a filtered cigarette an electronic cigarette since the 1920s, scientists and doctors have been able to link smoking with respiratory illness. researchers have identified negative health effects from smoking cigarettes such as cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd), heart disease, and other health problems relating to nearly every organ of the body. nicotine, the psychoactive drug in tobacco, makes cigarettes highly addictive. about half of cigarette smokers die of tobacco-related disease and lose on average 14 years of life. every year, tobacco cigarettes kill more than 8 million people worldwide; with 1.2 million of those being non-smokers dying as the result of exposure to second-hand smoke. second-hand smoke from cigarettes causes many of the same health problems as smoking, including cancer, which has led to legislation and policy that has prohibited smoking in many workplaces and public areas. cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemical compounds, including arsenic, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, lead, carbon monoxide, acrolein, and other poisonous substances. over 70 of these are carcinogenic. most modern cigarettes are filtered, although this does not make the smoke inhaled from them contain fewer carcinogens and harmful chemicals. cigarette use by pregnant people has also been shown to cause birth defects, including low birth weight, fetal abnormalities, and premature birth. smoking rates have generally declined in the developed world, but continue to rise in some developing nations. because of their adverse health effects, many countries have strict legislation concerning the marketing and purchasing age of tobacco. most nations outright ban commercials on cigarettes and have levied taxes on them to dissuade smokers to continue the habit. the first country to introduce a large scale anti-smoking campaign was nazi germany and despite its minimal success it did create a blueprint for many other nations to follow. in the 21st century, a product called an electronic cigarette (also called an e-cigarette or vape) was developed, in which the substance contained within it (typically a liquid solution containing nicotine) is vaporized by a battery-powered heating element, as opposed to being burned. such devices are commonly promoted by their manufacturers as safer alternatives to conventional cigarettes, although there are some health risks associated with their use. since e-cigarettes are a relatively new product, scientists do not possess data on their possible long-term health effects. history a reproduction of a carving from the temple at palenque, mexico, depicting a maya deity using a smoking tube the earliest forms of cigarettes were similar to their predecessor, the cigar. cigarettes appear to have had antecedents in mexico and central america around the 9th century in the form of reeds and smoking tubes. the maya, and later the aztecs, smoked tobacco and other 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. the north american, central american, and south 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). 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. the french word made its way into english in the 1840s. some american reformers promoted the spelling cigaret, but this was never widespread and is now largely abandoned. cigarettes are sometimes also called a fag in british slang. the first patented cigarette-making machine was invented by juan nepomuceno adorno of mexico in 1847. in the 1850s, turkish cigarette leaves had become popular. however, production climbed markedly when another cigarette-making machine was developed in the 1880s by james albert bonsack, which vastly increased the productivity of cigarette companies, which went from making about 40,000 hand-rolled cigarettes daily to around 4 million. at the time, these imported cigarettes from america had significant sales among british smokers. in the english-speaking world, the use of tobacco in cigarette form became increasingly widespread 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. this was helped by the development of tobaccos 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 quasicigarette cigarettes may have been initially used in a manner similar to pipes, cigars, and cigarillos and not inhaled; for evidence, see the lucky strike ad campaign asking consumers "do you inhale?" from the 1930s. as cigarette tobacco became milder and more acidic, inhaling may have become perceived as more agreeable. however, moltke noticed in the 1830s (cf. unter dem halbmond) that ottomans (and he himself) inhaled the turkish tobacco and latakia from their pipes (which are both initially sun-cured, acidic leaf varieties). a 1942 ad encourages women to smoke camel brand cigarettes. the widespread smoking of cigarettes in the western world is largely a 20th-century phenomenon. at the start of the 20th century, the per capita annual consumption in the u.s. 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). 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; implying that about 21% of the population smoked 100 cigarettes or more per year. by the late 19th century cigarettes were known as coffin nails but the link between lung cancer and smoking wasn't established until the 20th century. german doctors were the first to make the link, and it led to the first antitobacco movement in nazi germany. cigarette brands, including craven "a", advertised in shaftesbury avenue, london in 1949 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 stopped 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 printed health warnings became common on cigarette packets. the united states has not implemented graphical cigarette warning labels, which are considered a more effective method to communicate to the public the dangers of cigarette smoking. canada, mexico, belgium, denmark, sweden, thailand, malaysia, india, pakistan, australia, argentina, brazil, chile, peru, greece, the netherlands, new zealand, norway, hungary, the united kingdom, france, romania, singapore, egypt, jordan, nepal 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 may remove some of the tar before it reaches the smoker. the "holy grail" for cigarette companies has been a cancer-free cigarette. on record, the closest historical attempt was produced by scientist james mold. under the name project tame, he produced the xa cigarette. however, in 1978, his project was terminated. since 1950, the average nicotine and tar content of cigarettes has steadily fallen. research has shown that the fall in overall nicotine content has led to smokers inhaling larger volumes per puff. construction diagram of a cigarette mainstream smokefiltration materialadhesivesventilation holesinkadhesivesidestream smokefiltertipping papertobacco and ingredientspaperburning point and ashesmanufacturers have described the cigarette as "a drug administration system for the delivery of nicotine in acceptable and attractive form". 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. 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. 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 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. tobacco blend leones africanos brand cigarettes from the mid-20th century, part of the permanent collection of the museo del objeto del objeto 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. modern cigarettes produced after the 1950s, although composed mainly of shredded tobacco leaf, use a significant quantity of tobacco processing byproducts 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 byproducts such as leaf stems, tobacco dust, and tobacco leaf pieces ("small laminate"). to improve the economics of producing cigarettes, these byproducts are processed separately 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 byproducts 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 recycled tobacco fines, tobacco stems and "class tobacco", which consists of tobacco particles less than 30 mesh in size (about 0.6 mm) that are collected at any stage of tobacco processing: rl is made by extracting the soluble chemicals in the tobacco byproducts, 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. expanded (es) or improved stem (is): es is rolled, flattened, and shredded leaf stems that are expanded by being soaked in water and rapidly heated. improved stem follows the same process, but is simply steamed after shredding. both products are then dried. these products look similar in appearance, but are different in taste. according to data from the world health organization, the amount of tobacco per 1000 cigarettes fell from 1.03 kg (2.28 pounds) in 1960 to 0.41 kg (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 is mixed with various additives to improve