15 Smoking Facts You Did Not Know

Here is a list of things you may not have known about cigarette smoking or about the cigarette industry.

1. Tobacco, herba panacea, was once thought to clean out the lungs.

2. Urea, a chemical compound that is a major component in urine, is used to add “flavor” to cigarettes.

3. The legal age to purchase tobacco product in most countries around the world is 18, except Japan where the minimum age is 20 years old.

4. A small number of the population, mostly males, have the Smoking Fetish, the act of getting aroused by the sight of a smoker smoking (usually females). On the flip side, menthol cigarettes can force blood away from the penis if smoked while aroused.

5. After World War I, a group of tobacco companies banded together and denied that tobacco causes any harmful effects.

6. In the 1920's, the makers of Lucky Strike Cigarettes wanted to appeal to women who were watching their weight by using the slogan “Reach for a Lucky instead of a Sweet”

7. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.

8. The three most valuable brand names on earth are Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

9. Cigarette filters, tips and tobacco packaging make up 38% of debris collected at the yearly International Coastal Cleanup.

10. In 1970, President Nixon signed the law that placed warning labels on cigarettes and banned television advertisements for cigarettes. The last date that cigarette ads were permitted on TV was extended by a day, from December 31, 1970 to January 1, 1971 to allow the television networks one last cash windfall from cigarette advertising in the New Year’s Day football games.

11. The American brands Marlboro, Kool, Camel and Kent own roughly 70% of the global cigarette market.

12. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Health Department revealed that between 1997 and 2005 the amount of nicotine in Camel, Newport, and Doral cigarettes may have increased by as much as 11 percent.

13. Nicotine reaches the brain within 10 seconds after smoke is inhaled. It has been found in every part of the body and in breast milk.