The History of Cigarettes. Changes of Smoke Chemistry of Modern Day Cigarettes

'''The History of Cigarettes. Changes of Smoke Chemistry of Modern Day Cigarettes'''

On page 34, the author describes the physical differences between 1940s cigarettes and today's cigarettes. In 1940, a commercial cigarette contained 1300 milligrams (mg) of tobacco by weight, and by the 1980s it contained only 750 mg of tobacco. The author states,
 * Thus, a cigarette of the 1980's would contain about 40% less tobacco... than its counterpart of 40 years ago.

Apparently in the early 1900s, cigarette makers used just the upper one-fourth of the tobacco leaf to make cigarettes. Over the years, though, mechanical threshing created increased waste, and labor costs kept increasing. Eventually, the industry found ways to make use of parts of the tobacco plant that were never initially intended for use, like stems. Methods were developed for incorporating stems by making fillers like reconstituted and "puffed" tobacco (puffed tobacco is treated with a gas to expand it, like puffed wheat). In the long run, these cost-saving measures, combined with the use of additives, have decreased the amount of actual tobacco in a cigarette by fully 40%.

Title THE HISTORY OF CIGARETTES. CHANGES OF SMOKE CHEMISTRY OF MODERN DAY CIGARETTES Per. Author NORMAN,V Date 19830504/E Type SPEECH/PRESENTATION Bates 89442789/2826 Collection Lorillard Pages 38 URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/eig01e00

Related Sourcewatch resources

 * Cigarette design
 * Cigarette contaminants

External resources

 * InjuryBoard.com Modern Day Cigarettes Pose Higher Risk of Cancer than Cigarettes of the Past May 20, 2009
 * Modern cigarette (Diagram from tobacco industry documents)