A cigarette is manufactured out of cured and finely-cut tobacco, reconstituted tobacco and 599 additives, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. While these chemical compounds have been approved as additives to food, they were not tested by burning. Burning changes the properties of chemicals. More than 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette.

Cigarettes are proven to be highly addictive, as well as a cause for multiple types of cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, circulatory disease, birth defects and emphysema.

Cigarettes contain nicotine, an addictive stimulant which is toxic. Cigarettes deliver smoke to the lungs where nicotine is transferred to the blood stream and transported to the brain. This takes about seven seconds. Nicotine activates the reward pathways - the circuitry within the brain that regulates feelings of pleasure and euphoria. By increasing the amount of dopamine within the reward circuits of the brain, nicotine acts as a chemical with intense addictive qualities.

A key ingredient that makes cigarettes more addictive is the inclusion of reconstituted tobacco, which has additives to make nicotine more volatile.

Nicotine is an oily liquid that was first isolated from the tobacco plant in 1828 and was first synthesized in 1893.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world. Cigarette filters are not biodegradable.

According to the World Health Organization in 2000, there were 5.5 trillion cigarettes produced globally per year. And 1.1 billion people smoked them. That's over 17% of the world's total population. In the United States, 35% of men and 22% of women smoke. In Europe, 46% of men and 26% of women smoke.

Nicotine can be removed from tobacco to make cigarettes less addictive. Congress could pass a law to prohibit the use of reconstituted tobacco and to gradually reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. Nicotine can comprise up to 3% of dry tobacco. This could be reduced by 0.1% per year over 20-30 years, giving smokers a gradual reduction in nicotine. The government could randomly test cigarettes with fines in the millions of dollars for noncompliance. The tax on cigarettes could also be reduced to encourage Americans not to buy cheaper imports. The nicotine addiction for all Americans could be broken in 20-30 years.

Learn more about this author, Gary Betts.
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