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Anatomy of a Cigarette
by Lexi Krock
Humans have indulged in tobacco for hundreds if not
thousands of years, yet cigarette smoking is a relatively
new preoccupation. Before 1881, the year the
cigarette-rolling machine was invented, most people consumed
tobacco by chewing it, smoking it in a pipe, or snorting it
as snuff, though some smokers hand-rolled their own
cigarettes. The rolling machine allowed for the mass
production of cigarettes and helped establish the new,
state-of-the-art cigarette as the most common and popular
vehicle for tobacco consumption.
At first glance, this vehicle may look simple—a tube
of paper with tobacco in it. But each of a cigarette's
myriad elements has been carefully engineered for a specific
purpose. In this feature, take a closer look at a typical
cigarette and compare its conventional form with two recent
attempts to create a "safer" cigarette. (For more
information on these new high-tech designs, see
"Safer" Cigarettes: A History).
Lexi Krock is editorial assistant of NOVA Online.
Further reading
"The Changing Cigarette," by Dietrich Hoffmann and Ilse
Hoffmann.
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, 50:
307-364, 1997.
"Cigarette Engineering," Action on Smoking and Health,
http://www.ash.org.uk
The Worldwide Smoking Epidemic: Tobacco Trade,
Cigarette Manufacturing, and Use. William C. Scott et al. in
Journal of the American Medical Association, 263:
3312-3318, June 27, 1990.
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Anatomy of a Cigarette
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"Safer" Cigarettes: A History
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The Dope on Nicotine
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On Fire
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| Updated October 2001
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