Cigarettes are one of the best selling products in the world, and the tobacco industry is one of the most profitable. It's not a secret that Indians were first who came up with smoking cigarettes.

When it was not comfortable to use pipes, they started wrapping tobacco in the straw, cane, or corn leaves. In Europe, the spread of cigarettes took it beginning after the Crimean War. Russian and Turkish soldiers had to smoke on a halts only. Soldiers had no time to smoke the pipe, so began to turn tobacco into gunpowder paper-tubes. This venture was adopted by the British militaries also. The first European cigarette factory was built in London.

The rapid spread of cigarettes worldwide took place due to the invention in the U.S. machines for cigarettes manufacture in the nineteenth century. In the manufacture of cigarettes was used the newly-selected light tobacco varieties.

The cigarettes that were produces at first were not equipped with a filter. For the production of American cigarettes were used wastes from the manufacture of other tobacco products. Cigarette paper is made from flax fiber and contains calcium carbonate which has a bleaching effect.

The first cigarettes with asbestos filters were produced in England. These were brand-name cigarettes "Kent". Then, thanks to competition, have been developed modern types of filters.

At the end of a modern cigarette is a filter that does not permit the moisture, tar, nicotine, smoke, particulate matter and other harmful impurities in the body of a smoker. Usually they are made from recycled cellulose acetate. To improve the quality of filters, manufacturer increase its length, reduce the diameter of the fibers, add to the fiber various substances such as activated charcoal. Thanks to its use, the carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and benzene are delayed. Modern research shows that green tea when added to the cigarette filter can eliminate nearly whole harmful effect of nicotine. Filters are sometimes made with flavorings to improve the taste of cigarettes.

Cigarettes of world-known brands differ in taste and strength. These properties depend on many conditions: the ratio of tobaccos, added flavors and sauces, the quality of a filter, density of padding, air permeability feature of cigarette paper. Various sauces of flavorings are applied on uncut tobacco leaves to improve the taste of cigarettes.