Types of Tobacco

Cigarettes account for the largest share of manufactured tobacco products in the world—96 percent of total sales. Except for chewing tobacco in India and smoking of kreteks in Indonesia, cigarettes are the most common method of consuming tobacco throughout the world. The invention of the cigarette-rolling machine in 1881 accelerated the tobacco pandemic by mass-producing pocket sized packets of cigarettes. Unlike tediously hand-rolled cigarettes and bulky water pipes, manufactured cigarettes offered a convenient and portable method to maintain addiction, even while driving a motor vehicle, working in a factory, or taking a stroll.

In the current era of economic globalization, some forms of tobacco, historically localized to specific regions of the world (such as the hookah and bidi), have spread to every continent. For instance, Indonesian kreteks—clove-flavored, loosely packed tobacco cigarettes—are currently being marketed to youth in many industrialized countries. These regional forms of tobacco sometimes gain footholds in new countries based on their exotic cachet, but they rarely, if ever, displace manufactured cigarettes for a significant market share. Instead, they frequently serve as a gateway to addiction, luring youth and other fad smokers into lifelong dependence on cigarettes.

There is no safe way to use tobacco—whether inhaled, sniffed, sucked, or chewed; whether some of the harmful ingredients are reduced; or whether it is mixed with other ingredients.

Smokeless tobacco

Smokeless tobacco is usually consumed orally or nasally, without burning or combustion. There are two main types of smokeless tobacco: snuff and chewing tobacco.

DRY SNUFF

Dry snuff is powdered tobacco that is inhaled through the nose and absorbed through the nasal mucosa or taken orally. Once widespread, particularly in Europe, the use of dry snuff is in decline.

Most Prevalent: Europe

MOIST SNUFF

Moist snuff is a small amount of ground tobacco held in the mouth between the cheek and gum. Manufacturers are increasingly prepackaging moist snuff into small paper or cloth packets to make the product more convenient. Other moist snuff products are known as khaini, snus, shammaah, nass, or naswa.

Most Prevalent: Worldwide

CHEWING TOBACCO

Oral smokeless tobacco products are placed in the mouth, cheek, or inner lip and sucked (dipped) or chewed. Tobacco pastes or powders are similarly used, placed on the gums or teeth. Sometimes referred to as “spit tobacco” because users spit out the built-up tobacco juices and saliva, this mode of tobacco consumption became associated with American baseball players during the twentieth century. The tobacco industry exploited these sports heroes to market their tobacco products to youth. Smokeless tobacco causes cancer in humans and leads to nicotine addiction similar to that produced by cigarette smoking. There are many varieties of smokeless tobacco, including plug, loose-leaf, chimo, toombak, gutkha, and twist. Pan masala or betel quid consists of tobacco, areca nuts (Areca catechu), slaked lime (calcium hydroxide), sweeteners, and flavoring agents wrapped in a betel leaf (Piper betel). There are endless varieties of pan masala, including kaddipudi, hogesoppu, gundi, kadapam, zarda, pattiwala, kiwam, and mishri.

Most Prevalent: India

Smoking tobacco

Tobacco smoking is the act of burning dried or cured leaves of the tobacco plant and inhaling the smoke. Combustion releases biochemically active compounds in tobacco, such as nicotine and TSNA, and allows them to be absorbed through the lungs.

ROLL-YOUR-OWN

Roll-your-own (RYO) cigarettes are cigarettes hand-filled by the smoker from fine-cut, loose tobacco rolled in a cigarette paper. RYO cigarette smokers are exposed to high concentrations of tobacco particulates, tar, nicotine, and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), and are at increased risk for developing cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, lung, and esophagus.

Most Prevalent: Europe and New Zealand

MANUFACTURED CIGARETTES

Manufactured cigarettes are the most commonly consumed tobacco products worldwide. They consist of shredded or reconstituted tobacco, processed with hundreds of chemicals and rolled into a paper-wrapped cylinder. Usually tipped with a cellulose acetate filter, they are lit at one end and inhaled through the other.

Most Prevalent: Worldwide

CIGARS

Cigars are made of air-cured and fermented tobaccos with a tobacco-leaf wrapper. The long aging and fermentation process produces high concentrations of carcinogenic compounds that are released on combustion. The concentrations of toxins and irritants in cigars are higher than in cigarettes. Cigars come in many shapes and sizes, from cigarette-sized cigarillos to double coronas, cheroots, stumpen, chuttas, and dhumtis. In reverse chutta and dhumti smoking, the ignited end of the cigar is placed inside the mouth.

Most Prevalent: Worldwide

BIDIS

Bidis consist of a small amount of sun-dried, flaked tobacco hand wrapped in dried temburni or tendu leaf (Diospyros sp.) and tied with string. Despite their small size, bidis deliver more tar and carbon monoxide than manufactured cigarettes because users are forced to puff harder to keep bidis lit. Bidis are found throughout South Asia and are the most heavily consumed smoked tobacco products in India.

Most Prevalent: South Asia

KRETEKS

Kreteks are clove-flavored cigarettes widely smoked in Indonesia. They may contain a wide range of exotic flavorings and eugenol, which has an anesthetic effect, allowing for deeper and more harmful smoke inhalation.

Most Prevalent: Indonesia

WATER PIPES

Water pipes, also known as shisha, hookah, narghile, or hubble-bubble, operate by water filtration and indirect heat. Flavored tobacco is burned in a smoking bowl covered with foil and coal. The smoke is cooled by filtration through a basin of water and consumed through a hose and mouthpiece.

Most Prevalent: North Africa, the Mediterranean region, and parts of Asia.

PIPES

Pipes are made of briar, slate, clay, or other substances. Tobacco is placed in the bowl, and the smoke is inhaled through the stem. In Southeast Asia, clay pipes known as sulpa, chillum, and hookli are widely used.

Most Prevalent: Worldwide

STICKS

Sticks are made from sun-cured tobacco and wrapped in cigarette paper—for example, hand-rolled brus.

Most Prevalent: Papua New Guinea