Cigarette
Unlit filtered cigarettes
See also: tobacco smoking, nicotine, drug ad-
diction, and addiction
A cigarette (French "small cigar", from cigar
+
-ette)
is a product consumed through
smoking and manufactured out of cured and
finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted
tobacco, often combined with other addit-
ives,[1] then rolled or stuffed into a paper-
wrapped
cylinder
(generally
less
than
120 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter).
The cigarette is ignited at one end and al-
lowed to smoulder for the purpose of inhala-
tion of its smoke from the other (usually
filtered) end, which is inserted in the mouth.
They are sometimes smoked with a cigarette
holder. The term cigarette, as commonly
used, refers to a tobacco cigarette but can
apply to similar devices containing other
herbs, such as cannabis.
Rates of cigarette smoking vary widely.
While rates of smoking have leveled off or de-
clined in the developed world, they continue
to rise in developing nations. [2][3]
A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar
by its smaller size, use of processed leaf, and
paper wrapping, which is usually white,
though other colours are available. Cigars
are typically composed entirely of whole-leaf
tobacco.
Cigarettes are the most frequent source of
fires in private homes and the European
Union wishes to ban by 2011 cigarettes that
are not fire-safe[4].
History
A reproduction of a carving from the temple
at Palenque, Mexico, depicting a Mayan
priest smoking from a smoking tube.
The earliest forms of cigarettes have been at-
tested in Central America around the 9th
century in the form of reeds and smoking
tubes. The Maya, and later the Aztecs,
smoked tobacco and various psychoactive
drugs in religious rituals and frequently de-
picted priests and deities smoking on pottery
and temple engravings. The cigarette, and
the cigar, were the most common method of
smoking in the Caribbean, Mexico and Cent-
ral and South America until recent times.[5]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cigarette
1
The South and Central American cigare