Cigarette Manufacturing

Statutory warning: Smoking is injurious to health

Tobacco smoking is a practice which has changed little since American natives first stuffed the tobacco they cultivated in the hills of what is today modern Mexico into hollow reeds. As the practice spread through the Americas, different cultures wrapped their tobacco in vegetable leaves or corn husks, or put it in pipes for smoking. Spanish explorers enjoyed smoking and returned to the Old World with cigars (tobacco wrapped in tobacco leaves). In the beginning of the 16th century, beggars in Seville, Spain developed the first paper-rolled cigarettes when they collected discarded cigar butts, shredded them, and rolled them in scraps of paper. Although the Spanish elite first dismissed them as recycled garbage, these cigarillos, or little cigars, eventually gained popularity during the 18th century. Cigarette smoking spread to Italy and Portugal, and eventually to the rest of Europe & Asia.

In response to these concerns, several cigarette manufacturers introduced a number of alternative cigarettes, including menthol, filter-tipped, and low-tar cigarettes. Menthol cigarettes smell and taste "cooler" because they are flavored with a substance found in mint oil, although they pose the same health risks. Filters help block some materials from entering the body, but their effectiveness varies from brand to brand, and even low-tar cigarettes expose the body to potentially harmful levels of tar. Recently, manufacturers have sought to reduce the amount of nicotinein cigarettes as well.

Raw Materials

The most important component of cigarettes is tobacco, which grows in two varieties: Nicotiana tabacum, or cultivated tobacco, and Nicotiana rustica, or wild tobacco. Native to the western hemisphere, the plant is now widely grown in countries such as China, India, Brazil, the former Soviet Union, Turkey, and the U.S. About one third of the tobacco cultivated in the U.S. is exported. North Carolina is the leading domestic grower, followed by Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee; Virginia, and Georgia, all of which have favorable soil and climates for tobacco growing. The plant does best in light and sandy loam soils that drain well and permit good aeration. The tobacco plant requires a frost-free growing season of 100-130 days; thus, it tends to be cultivated within 50 degrees latitude of the equator.

Cigarette rolling papers use seed flax mixed with paper pulp to produce a thin, flammable paper. The filters are made of synthetic, cotton-like fibers that catch particles as they are drawn through the length of the cigarette. The finished cigarettes are packaged in hard or soft cardboard boxes and wrapped in protective cellophane.

The Manufacturing 
Process

Growing the tobacco

• 1 Tobacco is initially grown in outdoor frames called seedbeds. In warm regions, the frames are covered with mulch or a cotton top sheet; in cooler regions, glass or plastic shields are installed to protect the plants. After 8-10 weeks, when the seedlings are almost 10 inches (25 cm) tall, they are transplanted to the fields. Although transplanting machines are available, the vast majority of the world's tobacco plants are still planted manually. As the plants grow, the heads are broken off by hand so the leaves will grow fuller, a process called topping. The plants stay in the field 90-120 days before they are harvested.

Harvesting the tobacco

• 2 Tobacco plants are harvested by one of two methods, priming or stalk-cutting. In the priming method, the leaves are gathered and brought to a curing bam as they ripen. In the stalk-cutting method, the entire plant is cut and the plants are allowed to 
  wilt in the field before being taken to the curing barn.

Curing the leaf

• 3 Next, the leaves are carefully, gradually dried in a specially constructed barn by air curing, flue curing, or fire curing. Air curing uses natural weather conditions to dry tobacco. Stalks are hung in a barn with ventilators that can be opened and closed to control temperature and humidity. Artificial heat is used only during cold or excessively humid weather. The stalks are hung for four to eight weeks.
• 4 Flue curing is done in small, tightly constructed barns that are artificially heated. The heat comes from flues (metal pipes) that are attached to furnaces. Open oil and gas burners are sometimes used, but this method is problematic because smoke can-not come in direct contact with the tobacco. Flue curing takes about four to six days.
• 5 Fire curing dries tobacco with low-burning wood fires whose smoke comes in direct contact with the leaves, thus producing a smoky flavor and aroma. The tobacco is allowed to dry naturally in the barn for three to five days before it is fire-dried for 3-40 days.

Moistening and stripping

• 6 Unless humid weather conditions eliminate the need, the brittle, cured tobacco leaves must be conditioned in moistening chambers so they do not break when they are handled. After moistening, the tobacco is stripped. During this process, the leaves are sprayed with additional moisture as a precaution against cracking or breaking.

Sorting and auctioning

• 7 After the leaves are moistened and stripped, they are sorted into grades based on size, color, and quality, and tied in bundles for shipment. The farmers then bring the tobacco to warehouses, where it is placed in baskets, weighed, graded once again by a government inspector and, finally, auctioned to cigarette manufacturers.

Conditioning, aging, and blending

• 8 After they have purchased and transported the material to their factories, manufacturers treat and age the tobacco to enhance its flavor. First, the manufacturer 
• redries the tobacco. This involves completely drying the leaves by air and then adding a uniform amount of moisture. Packed into barrels called hogsheads, the tobacco is then aged for one to three years, during which period it develops its flavor and aroma. After it is aged, the tobacco leaves are again moistened and the stalks and other wastes removed. Leaves from different types of tobacco are mixed to create a particular flavor.

Making the cigarettes

• 9 After blending, the tobacco leaves are pressed into cakes and mechanically shredded. Materials such as fruit juices or menthol are added to give additional flavor. The final shredded tobacco is then dispersed over a continuous roll of cigarette paper. A machine rolls the shredded tobacco into the paper and cuts it to the desired length. A device then grabs each cigarette and fastens a filter in one end. Modern cigarette machines can produce 25-30 cigarettes a second.

Packaging

• 10 The final stage of cigarette manufacture is packaging. The completed cigarettes are packed 20 to a package. The hard or soft packs are mechanically sealed in cellophane and hand-placed in cartons.

The Future

As more and more evidence suggests that cigarette smoking harms both smokers and those around them, efforts to limit smoking. The government continues to take an active role in smoking and public health. Recent Surgeons General have all publicly opposed the practice as an unnecessary health risk. Numerous studies into the effects of smoking have been funded, and government-sponsored public service announcements are being aired and printed. Many such announcements are tailored towards children, as are many anti-smoking school and public health programs. To raise revenues and discourage younger smokers, several states have approved large cigarette taxes. Employers have also banned smoking within their buildings to curb secondhand smoke.

Though the market for tobacco products has eroded significantly since the government began publishing reports on the dangers of cigarette smoking, smoking is still common among Americans. Although a smaller percentage of  men smoke today than thirty years ago, a greater percentage of smokers are women and teenagers.

Source: Super blogger & Grise, Vernier. The U.S. Tobacco Industry. U.S. Department of Agriculture Economics Research Service, 1988.