Cigarette Packaging

Tobacco was initially used by pre-Columbian Indians, who had smoked in pipes, and even used for hallucinogens in shamanistic rituals. Christopher Columbus was given tobacco by natives and introduced Europe to return to North America.

However, smoking is not more widely used in Europe until the mid 16th century, when explorers and diplomats like France's Jean Nicot (for whom nicotine was named) popularized its use. Tobacco was introduced in France in 1556, Portugal in 1558, Spain in 1559 and England in 1565.

Initially, tobacco was produced for pipe smoking, chewing tobacco and snuff. Cigarettes were made in a crude form rolled by hand since the early 1600s, but did not become popular in America after the Civil War. Cigarette sales have increased with the introduction of the cigarette rolling machine by James Bonsack in 1883, in a contest sponsored by tobacco company Allen and Ginter, who has pledged $ 75,000 to the first person to invent a fast machine roll cigarettes. This facilitated the industrial production and widespread distribution of cigarettes.

Since then, nicotine addiction has become a public health concern in virtually every country on Earth. Warnings about the health risks of smoking were muted until the 1950s and 1960s, when a series of unsuccessful lawsuits forced the issue into the public eye. It was not until the 1990s would be a successful lawsuit by the plaintiff. However, the U.S. Surgeon General first demanded that warning labels on packages of cigarettes began in 1966.

Both the tar and nicotine content in cigarettes are toxins, each its own meaning and is not to mention toxic substances like arsenic used in the curing process. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine, and has lasting effects on the dopamine systems of the brain. The tar "which filters attempt to remove falls into four categories of substances: nitrosamines, widely considered the most carcinogenic of all agents in tobacco smoke aldehydes, created by the burning of sugars and cellulose in tobacco; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons form in the cigarette behind the burning tip, and traces of heavy metals from fertilizers used to grow the plant.

Tobacco companies have been reluctant to admit in public that they knew the dangers posed by their product, but in a concession to the enemies of the tobacco, they have produced what was advertised as "safer" filtered cigarettes.

In 1958, a scientist working for Philip Morris went so far to publicly admit that, "Evidence is builing up that heavy smoking contributes to lung cancer." He cleverly suggested that this admission could be turned into wealth "ammunition" to attack the competition by suggesting that Philip Morris, unlike its rivals, the cigarettes with filters to filter toxins. In 1986, the CEO of British American Tobacco, Patrick Sheehy, had a different opinion and wrote that "in trying to develop a" safe "cigarette you are, consequently, the risk of being interpreted as accepting the current product is dangerous, and it is not a position I think that we should take. "

However much tobacco executives attempted to hide the dangers of their products to the public, increasing market demand eventually forced all cigarette companies to develop filtration systems for their cigarettes. filter cigarettes accounted for only 1 percent of cigarette purchases in 1950, but rose to 87 percent in 1975.

However, the development of filtered cigarettes met two hurdles, one medical and the other a matter of personal taste. Because smokers are addicted to nicotine, they smoke until their craving for nicotine is satisfied. A filter that removes nicotine simply encourage them to inhale more deeply or smoke more cigarettes. A filter that removes components of tobacco tar to cut t.