Innovations. Although tobacco product innovation was infrequent, according to Intelligence firm Euromonitor, in 2008 it had three purposes- ‘to justify a premium price, to promise a different experience and to suggest a reduced risk experience’. However, following the Tobacco Experience and Promotions Act 2003, which led to the end of conventional forms advertising in 2005, product and packaging innovations along with pricing tactics, became the only way to communicate with customers and promote tobacco products in what the industry refer to as a “dark market”.

The four big tobacco companies reveal the importance of both product innovation and packaging innovation to the current and future success of the business. The term innovation was often used to refer to both packaging and product innovations.

Innovation in tobacco procedures. Cigarettes are produced in factories around the world by processing the tobacco leaf, manufacturing the cigarettes, and preparing the final pack. Experts use their detailed knowledge to carefully select the blend of different tobacco types (such as Virginia, burley, and oriental) and leaf grades used in different cigarette brands. The tobaccos are selected to maintain the consistency and distinctive character of each brand.

Whether it’s for smoking, for ceremonial use, or for an insect repellent solution, there are many reasons to dry, or air-cure, your own tobacco leaves. Drying tobacco is a kind of curing process that takes between 3 and 8 weeks to properly prepare the tobacco for use. This method of curing will produce tobacco leaves that are, relative to other curing methods, low in sugar, high in nicotine, and sweet in flavor!

A tobacco company made use of the slogan “It’s toasted!” referring to heat curing rather sun drying of the tobacco leaf.  Purported to remove harmful corrosive acids (pungent irritants) and to sterilize tobacco. In reality, their curing of tobacco did not differ from methods of other manufacturers.

Innovations through cigarette filters. Cigarette smoking has always been a delightful part of a man’s or woman’s day nearly a century ago. Cigarettes then were mostly unfiltered. Puffing smoke from unfiltered cigarettes gives that pleasure after a day’s work or after a lunch break. Smokers did not give a damn if the cigarettes were filtered or not. However, when scientific reports started to reveal the dangerous effects of smoking, manufacturers thought it urgent to find a way to reduce, if not totally eliminate, the risk of smoking. To the manufacturers, the report was giving them the idea on how to improve their product by showing their concern about their consumers’ health.

Thus the idea of filters came up. Initially designed to reduce tar and nicotine level, filters were made in such a way that cigarette smoking became more pleasant to the tongue and deliciously smooth to inhale. Continuous improvements were made with high sophistication, complex filtration, and ventilation.

Varied materials were used as filters. Paper, aside from being fully biodegradable, has excellent filtration properties. It became the first absorbing agent used in cigarette filters. Unbleached paper filter was pleasantly welcomed by admirers of natural look products, both cigarette and roll-your-own. Paper is an ideal solution for low tar cigarettes in double or triple segments versions.

Cigarette paper ingredients of the highest purity are strictly selected for best performance. Special fiber types. Proper air permeability. Optimized plug wrap porosity. Tailor-made solution is designed for delicate taste and aroma controlling. This composition with classic filter and tipping paper perforation allows to reach balanced tar and nicotine deliveries and palatable taste sensation.

What is the difference between brown and white cigarette filters? There is absolutely NO difference between white and brown (usually called “cork” paper within the industry) filters. When cigarettes were first produced using a filter they actually used cork part of the filter. That only lasted a very short time until other materials were substituted. Today the filter material is cellulose acetate (in the industry known as “tow”). At one time in the 1950s a brand of cigarette actually used a form of asbestos.

The cork paper was used because the few people who smoked filtered cigarettes were used to the appearance of cork on the filter. A printed tipping paper was used to replace the actual cork.

Today, depending mostly upon geographic location and demographics, either white filter tipping paper or cork tipping is the preferred norm. Some women prefer a cork filter because it does not leave as much of a red lipstick stain when they take the cigarette out of their mouth. Still other women prefer to show the red lipstick stain because they feel it is sexier. It is simply a matter of personal taste as to what people prefer. Either paper will NOT affect the taste of the cigarettes.

The acetate filter is a market classic at its best. Processed acetate tow have a whole range of dimensions, ventilation and pressure drop levels, and provide performance ranging from very mild to full flavor.

Cellulose acetate (a plastic) comprise 95% of cigarette filters and the balance are made from paper and rayon. The cellulose acetate tow fibers are thinner that sewing thread, white and packed tightly together to create a filter. When packed tightly together, they can look like cotton.

Viewing the white face of a cigarette filter with the naked eye and compression of the fiber column with the fingers would suggest that the fiber is made of a sponge-like material. However, opening the cigarette filter by cutting it lengthwise with a razor, reveals that it consists of a fibrous mass.Spreading apart the matrix reveals some of the more than 12000 white fibers. Microscopically, these fibers are Y-shaped and contain the delustrant titanium dioxide. The fibers are made of cellulose acetate, a synthetic plastic-like substance used commonly for photographic films. A plasticiser, triacetin (glycerol triacetate), is applied to bond the fibers.”

The charcoal filter. The filter of some cigarettes also contain charcoal as an additional filtration agent. With activated carbon placed in a small cavity or dispersed among the filter tow was designed to reduce delivery of harmful volatile compounds. The absorbing effect is dependent on the contents of the charcoal present. Overall, the more charcoal amount the more desired filtration even by deep inhalation.

Using wool in filters. A certain brand also started the use of wool as filter. An investigation is described in which cigarette filters were fabricated from combed wool and two types of adhesive-bonded wool webs. The influence of variables such as fiber arrangement, fiber diameter, pressure drop, and binder content on three selected performance was studied. More effective filtration was achieved by decreasing the fiber diameter and utilizing a random fiber arrangement. Higher pressure drops increased the retention of smoke particles but lowered the collection efficiencies of the fibers. The filter performance was adversely affected by increasing the binder content of the bonded webs.

At low or medium pressure drops, filters prepared from a random web were more efficient than conventional cellulose acetate filters. The random web gave firm filters, which retained their firmness during smoking.

General effect of filters. Through the filters, the pleasant feeling and more are what you get when you open a pack of 212 Cigarettes. Every puff of that smoke from a 212 Cigarette stick sends that delightful aroma of American blend and flavor of the New York lifestyle. Affordable but treats you to a bonding moment whether with yourself alone, or with friends and the prospect of meeting more in your social circle or even beyond to an experience far more delightful than you ever dreamed of.