What are the components of cigarettes?

Answer 1

Although, to the naked eye, all cigarettes appear to look similar, there are many variations in both the design and mix of tobaccos, including king size, superkings, lights, low tar and menthol cigarettes. The cigarette itself consists of the tobacco section and the filter section. The lengths can vary depending on the brand and affect the taste, strengths and amounts of smoke. The filters differ depending on the amount of smoke that is yielded by the cigarette, as does the paper. The tobacco includes tobacco lamina (the flat part of the tobacco leaf), tobacco stem (midribs of the leaf), and expanded lamina. Flavorings and food type ingredients are added to some brands of cigarettes, often American style blends, to compliment the natural tobacco taste, keep the tobacco moist, replace some of the sugar lost in curing and give the many differing brands their own characteristic flavors and aromas. Other ingredients act as binders or filters, control moisture, and protect against degradation. At each stage there is strict quality control to ensure that the tastes remain constant long term. Nicotine is not added in the manufacture of cigarettes but occurs naturally in all varieties of tobacco plants. Filters are attached to the cigarette to trap and reduce the amounts of tar and nicotine in the smoke and are made mainly from cellulose acetate fibers, a derivative of wood pulp, known as tow. The fibers are bonded together with a hardening agent, triacetin plasticizer, which helps the filter to keep its shape. The filter is wrapped in paper and sealed with adhesive plus coatings to prevent it sticking to the lips. Sometimes charcoal is added to filters. Filter tips are biodegradable over a period of between a month and three years, depending on the environmental conditions. Although there is ongoing research, currently there is no known practical method of making consumer-acceptable filters that would degrade so quickly that they would not cause short-term littering problems. The best way to reduce potential litter problems is for consumers to dispose of filters and cigarette packs in a responsible way.

Answer

Cigarettes are supposed to contain tobacco and flavorings, plus paper, ink and polyester tow. Some cigarettes only contain tobacco with no flavorings, but most cigarettes have some flavoring in them. Cocoa powder is a very popular flavoring, although cigarettes don't taste like chocolate.

Some cigarettes have ammonia in them, and some antismoking advocates say it was put in there to enhance the nicotine level of the cigarette so it's more addictive. It might do that--who's to say?--but it's in there because tobacco produces ammonia while it ages. If you age tobacco for several years, the ammonia will leach out of the tobacco. If you buy a bale of tobacco grown in 2009 and make cigarettes out of it in 2009, there will be a lot of ammonia in it.

Cigar makers age their tobaccos for many years to get the ammonia out. This is why someone who never smoked cigarettes before he started smoking handrolled cigars can't smoke cigarettes--the ammonia fumes make the cigarette taste so bad he can't smoke it. People who started smoking cigarettes first think that's how they're supposed to taste.

Many years ago, tobacco was sold under price stabilization. A tobacco farmer was guaranteed a certain price for his tobacco; in exchange, he was only allowed to sell a certain amount every year. He could get more than that, because tobacco was auctioned. He was guaranteed to get the minimum amount because if all else failed, the tobacco stabilization cooperative would buy it at the "stabilization price" but very good tobaccos sold for very good prices. If your quota was 10,000 pounds and you grew 11,000 pounds, you had to hold back the excess tobacco until the next year. When you brought that tobacco to market, sometimes you could get an extra good price for it because the year of aging would allow much of the ammonia to leave the leaf.

• Hydrogen Cyanide - a highly poisonous gas used in execution chambers

• Carbon monoxide - a poisonous gas found in car exhaust fumes

• Formaldehyde - used as disinfectant and embalming fluid

• Benzene -a toxic petrol additive and industrial solvent

• Methanol - a poisonous alcohol used in anti-freeze

• Polonium - highly radioactive and toxic element

• Ammonia - a strong alkali used as a refrigerant

• Acetone - a solvent used in nail-polish remover

• Nicotine - a nerve poison used in insecticide

• Radon - a carcinogenic radioactive gas

Some are more harmful and well-known than others :) x

• Butane - a flammable gas used as fuel

• Toluene - an industrial solventArsenic - a common poison

• Tar - used in road surfacing

• DD - a banned pesticide