What Is In Cigarette Filters

Cigarette Filters

What are cigarettes and filters made of?

Cigarettes are made from four components, each of which is describe below.
1. Filters
2. Tobacco
3. Additives
4. Cigarette wrapper
Cigarettes today are typically 85 or 100 mm long, and have diameters of about 8 mm. Their filters are usually 20 to 30 mm long, so a typical cigarette has 55 to lxxx mm of tobacco.

ane. Filters:
Cigarette filters are specifically designed to absorb vapors and to accrue particulate smoke components. Filters too prevent tobacco from inbound a smoker's mouth and provide a mouthpiece that volition non plummet as the cigarette is smoked. Filters generally have the post-obit components:

A "plug" of acetate cellulose filter tow
95% of cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate (a plastic), and the rest are made from papers and rayon. The cellulose acetate tow fibers are thinner than sewing thread, white, and packed tightly together to create a filter; they can look similar cotton. Other materials have been tried and rejected in favor of the gustatory modality that acetate produces. Filters vary in filtration efficiency, depending on whether the cigarette is to be "light" or regular.

How many fibers are in a cigarette filter?
The post-obit is quoted from a enquiry newspaper by researchers from the New York State Section of Health, the Roswell Park Cancer Found, and Cornell University. Click hither for full article.

"Viewing the white face of the cigarette filter with the naked heart and pinch of the filter cavalcade with the fingers would suggest that the filter is made of a sponge-similar material. Yet, opening the cigarette filter, by cutting it lengthwise with a razor, reveals that information technology consists of a fibrous mass. Spreading apart the matrix reveals some of the more than than 12 000 white fibers. Microscopically, these fibers are Y shaped and contain the delustrant titanium dioxide. The fibers are fabricated of cellulose acetate, a synthetic plastic-similar substance used unremarkably for photographic films. A plasticiser, triacetin (glycerol triacetate), is applied to bond the fibers."

An inner newspaper wrapper (plug wrap) and glue
The paper used to wrap the acetate cellulose plug is impervious to air for regular cigarettes, or is ventilated and very porous in "light" cigarettes, allowing more air to enter the smoke mix. A polyvinyl acetate emulsion is used equally the glue to adhere the plug to the wrapper, and to seam the wrapper.

An outer newspaper (tipping paper)
The tipping paper, oft printed to look like cork, covers the filter plug and attaches the filter to the cavalcade of tobacco. Tipping paper is formulated to not adhere to the lips of smokers.

Other Filter components
The filters of some cigarettes, such as Parliament, besides contain charcoal as an additional filtration amanuensis. The "micronite filter" on Lorillard's' Kent brand cigarettes from 1952 to 1957 contained the deadliest course of asbestos - crocidolite. While advertisements at the time promoted the filter every bit making Kents healthier than other cigarettes, there are currently several lawsuits pending against Lorillard from families of smokers who died from a rare cancer caused primarily by crocidolite.

2. Tobacco and Nicotine in Cigarettes:
Cultivated tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, is a fellow member of the nightshade family unit of plants. It is a broadleaf native of tropical America that is cultivated as an annual. Depending on the type of tobacco and its growing location, the leaves of the tobacco plant have different tastes, burning properties, aromas, color, and nicotine content. Tobacco leaves incorporate several alkaloids (see beneath), including the highly toxic alkaloid nicotine. Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction in smokers according to the United states of america Department of Health and Homo Services.

Nicotine is a powerful insecticide and amidst the deadliest of all found products in its pure form. According to the US Department of Health and Man Services, it raises blood pressure, affects the primal nervous organisation, and constricts blood vessels in humans. Nicotine is a colorless liquid that is highly soluble in h2o, and is readily absorbed through the skin in its pure form.

three. Additives to tobacco:
Potentially hundreds of additives are mixed with tobacco during the manufacturing process. Additives to smoking tobacco include flavorings and humectants that are used to keep tobacco moist. According to a publication written for the tobacco manufacture, additives can establish ten percent of the weight of the "tobacco" portion of a cigarette, and four per cent of the entire cigarette.

The complete list of 1,400 potential tobacco additives, which include sweeteners and flavors such cocoa, rum, licorice, sugar, and fruit juices is considered a trade hole-and-corner. Since tobacco is non classified as a food or drug, there are no legal maximums on agronomical chemicals or chemical additives cigarettes may contain.

A widely used cigarette condiment is menthol with its ability to provide flavor and to serve as an anesthetic. When burned, many additives class new compounds, possessing unique properties. For instance, glycerol produces acrolein, a chemical which has been found to interfere with the normal clearing of the lungs (Whelan, 1984)

"Tar" in cigarette filters:
The "tar" often referred to in connection with cigarettes is non a black petroleum tar product, but instead refers to the hundreds of substances and additives found in tobacco. Tar, when cool, is a sticky yellow-brown substance and the U.S. Section of Health and Human Services states that it is composed of organic and inorganic chemicals, including some carcinogens. The U.South. Federal Merchandise Committee defines tar as "total particulate matter…less nicotine and h2o."

Contents of Cigarette Smoke:
When smoked, the tobacco and additives in a cigarette undergo complex chemical processes to class fume that contains more than than 4000 chemicals, including carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, nicotine, ammonia, arsenic and vinyl chloride (U.S. Department of Wellness and Homo Services, 1989). Twoscore-three constituents of tobacco fume are known carcinogens including nitrosamines, quinoline, benzpyrene, cadmium, ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and hydrogen sulfide (U.Due south. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989, and other sources).

About Alkaloids:
According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Botany (editor: Michael Allaby, 1992), alkaloids are … "A group of basic, nitrogenous compounds of a complex nature. Alkaloids are derived from plants and have powerful pharmacological effects. More than 1000 alkaloids are known from 1200 plants species. Their role is uncertain merely in some species, they confer a caste of protection from insect attack. Pharmacologically powerful alkaloids derived from plants include cocaine, morphine, and strychnine."

4. Cigarette Wrapper and Glue
Generally, the newspaper used to wrap the tobacco is made form flax or linen fiber. Manufacturers add together diverse chemicals to the newspaper, including salts, monoammonium phosphate and sodium and potassium citrates to accelerate or control the burning rate. The burn charge per unit has an important effect on the number of puffs that tin can exist obtained by the smoker, and the smoke yield. A whitening paint—calcium carbonate—is added to the newspaper, partly to ensure the creation of an attractive ash as the cigarette burns (Browne, 1990). The wrappers' seams are glued with an agglutinative that is a modified starch or natural gum (Browne, 1990).

Click hither for newspaper articles about how communities are trying to reduce cigarette litter.

Read all about cigarette butt litter!

Click hither to read an article that was published in the Baronial 2000 event of the American Littoral Society journal, The Underwater Naturalist. This article, past CVW's Executive Director Kathleen Thou. Register, includes groundwork data, such equally the fact that ii.1 billion pounds of cigarette filters were discarded worldwide in 1998, along with results of her research showing that leached chemicals from cigarette filters are deadly to the water flea Daphnia magna, a minor crustacean at the lower finish of, but of import to the aquatic food concatenation.

Students and Teachers:

Are yous interested in doing a science off-white project on cigarette litter? Click hither for ideas and data.

Render to Cigarette Butt Litter Home Folio

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