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Cigarette

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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. In the UK you can buy them once you're 16.

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:

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.

¹Hydrogen cyanide is classified as a chemical weapon.

Consumption

Approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year by the tobacco industry, smoked by over 1.1 billion people.

Smoking Prevalence by Gender
PERCENT SMOKING
REGIONMENWOMEN
Africa294
Americas3522
Eastern Mediterranean354
Europe4626
South-East Asia444
Western Pacific608
(2000, World Health Organization estimates)

The country of Turkey leads the world in individual percentage of adults who smoking, with 60% of the population being smokers.

The front and back of a UK cigarette packet (2003)

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 smoking, cigarettes being the most popular method, is one of the major causes of preventable death. Specifically, cigarette smoking is associated with lung cancer, the leading cause of death amongst smokers. Certain other lung disorders, like emphysema, are also accredited to cigarette smoking. 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, the stimulant and active ingredient in cigarettes, is also quite addictive. It is 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. Children and pets may be poisoned from eating cigarettes or cigarette butts.

The absolute risk of lung cancer from "smoking in general" varies, depending on method of smoking, substance, frequency and intensity of use. On the other hand, inhalation of toxic to carcinogenic additives, like radon and radium-226, primarily are understood to cause lung cancer. Much of the farmland used to grow tobacco in the United States is contaminated with radioactive material as a result of using phosphate-rich fertilizers.

In 1990, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that "radioactivity, not tar, accounts for at least 90 percent of all smoking related lung cancer." Studies by Winters et al., in the New England Journal of Medicine (1982), found that skeletons of cigarette smokers contained deposits of lead-210 and polonium-210, two isotopes formed by radioactive decay of radium found in the soil where tobacco plants are grown.

For many years the tobacco industry presented research of its own that countered emerging medical research about the addictive nature and adverse health effects of cigarettes. 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.

But in the same time period, anti-smoking campaigners like the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have also been suspected of using faulty reasoning. In 1993, an EPA report estimated that 3,000 lung cancer related deaths in the U.S. were caused by passive smoking each year. Tobacco industry lobbyists, such as the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, and industry-funded researchers like S. Fred Singer, aggressively attacked the EPA study. In 1998 the U.S. District Court in North Carolina struck down that report, ruling that the EPA had based its report on inadequate science, improper technique, and failed to demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between second-hand smoke and lung cancer.

Regardless, many countries and jurisdictions have instituted public smoking bans. In New York City smoking is forbidden in most all workplaces, although not enforced in some small neighborhood bars. In some locations of Japan, it is against the law to smoke outside on the street.

Cigarette manufacturers

(incomplete)

Also see http://www.tobacco.org, a tobacco information site

Brands

(links often show other meanings of the name, in many cases including that which the brand is named after)

File:Belomorkanal.JPG
Belomorkanal cigarettes

Online cigarette stores

In an effort to avoid paying duty or taxes, many online stores have appeared that offer out-of-country cigarettes to avoid taxes in the jurisdiction where the smoker resides.

Online cigarette stores are big business today, but face serious legal competition from the brand manufacturers who do not want to see their profits diminished, as the quality of these cigarettes is just as high but sold at much lower cost for third world countries.

Some online cigarette stores exist to sell tax-free cigarettes inside one's own country of residence as well. The legality of these stores is being questioned currently in the United States. Federal lawmakers contend that these stores are clear tax evasions. Recently in Michigan, several online stores have been subpoenaed by the state for the names and addresses of customers. The state has reportedly been sending out fines for each package purchased, again contending tax evasion over Michigan's $2-a-pack law.

In a bold move, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have all refused to allow online cigarette stores to accept payment by credit-card. Online stores are now forced to use the slower, and more risky form of payment known as e-check whereby one enters checking account information in an online form.

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/smokes19e_20050219.htm Legal Low Tax Cigarettes

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