cigarette

Thin paper tube stuffed with shredded tobacco for smoking, now usually plugged with a filter. The first cigarettes were the papelitos smoked in South America about 1750. The habit spread to Spain and then throughout the world; today it is the most general form of tobacco smoking, although it is dangerous to the health of both smokers and non-smokers who breathe in the smoke.

Since the 1960s warnings from the US Surgeon General have been added to packages and cartons, about the dangers of smoking and cancer, lung disease, heart disease, and the effects on the developing fetus.

In the prisons of many countries, and in wartime, cigarettes have been used as an unofficial form of currency.

During the period 1975-95 cigarette production worldwide increased an average 2.2% per year; world population growth increased at 1.7% during the same period.