Cigarettes

October 21, 2008

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Profile America — Tuesday, October 21st. One of the nation’s most successful brand names went on sale for the first time on this day 95 years ago — Camel cigarettes, the first pre-blended, packaged cigarettes. Before that, smokers had to roll one themselves when they wanted to light up. By 1919, U.S. society was changing rapidly and with increasing advertising, cigarettes overtook pipe tobacco in the number of pounds of tobacco consumed. Now, just over one-in-five American adults smokes, lighting up 1,700 cigarettes a year. We make 484 billion cigarettes a year, all but a tiny portion of them filter tipped. Just over one-fifth of U.S. made cigarettes are sent overseas. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: American Speakers Calendar of Events
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, t. 192, 986
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2008edition.html