The perspective regarding smoking cigarettes had dramatically changed over the last century. Each week, more than 105 billion cigarettes are sold, which comes to ten million cigarettes per minute. Approximately, one in three adults smoke, and cigarettes are the only product for which, following the instructions carefully results in the user becoming toxic, ill or dead. Many public buildings prohibit the cigarette smoking, and cigarettes are not advertised anywhere anymore.

Cigarettes contain nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, and arsenic. Some cigarettes contain urea, which is also a type of chemical found in urine. Suicide, road accidents, AIDS, murder and drugs and solvents all kill, but smoking kills five times more people than all the other causes put together. Pregnant women who smoke are likely to have higher rates of miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth and other complications of pregnancy.

Smoking not only harms the smoker, but also the coworkers, family members and others who indirectly inhale the cigarette smoke. Most people take up the habit of smoking during their teens, and in addition to alcohol, wearing stilettos, using aftershave, sexual intercourse and drugs, cigarette smoking is seen as the right of passage towards adulthood. Smokers report the effect such as alertness, calmness, stimulation, relaxation and concentration after smoking, but the after effects of smoking vary from one person to another, based on their expectations. To make the nicotine in cigarettes more potent than that of tobacco plant, many different methods of production and active ingredients are involved.

Cigarettes can contain 4,000 ingredients, and when these are burnt, can produce 200 compound chemicals which have been linked to lung damage. There seems to be some correlation between country’s standard of living, income, level of education and the number of people who quit smoking. 80% of the smokers live in countries that are on low end and middle of the socioeconomic spectrum, and apparently, the financially advantaged men in advanced countries have been smoking less in the recent years. Tobacco reduces the flow of blood, and hence nicotine addiction has been linked to impotency.

Cigarettes contain lead, nitrogen oxide, formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia, carbon monoxide and 43 other known carcinogens. Smokers report several different after-effects such as relaxation, calmness, stimulation, alertness, concentration etc. and smoking produces different effects in individuals depending on their expectations. Several methods of production and several active ingredients are used in making sure that the nicotine in the cigarettes is much more potent than that of the tobacco plant. Historically, smoking was a past time of the rich, but now, the worldwide use of tobacco varies by culture, historical era and social class.