Smoked Tobacco Products

• Cigarettes
• Light Cigarettes
• Menthol cigarettes
• Cigars and pipes
• Bidis and Kreteks (Clove Cigarettes)
• Hookahs

Cigarettes

A cigarette is any roll of tobacco wrapped in paper or in any substance not containing tobacco. It is the most widely used tobacco product in the United States.

Tobacco smoke contains a deadly mix of more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic. About 70 are known to cause cancer. Learn more about the health effects of smoking cigarettes. The chemicals in cigarette smoke also effect those around you. Breathing secondhand smoke from cigarettes is harmful to both children and adults. Learn more about the health effects of secondhand smoke.

View an accessible version of this infographic.

Breathing secondhand smoke from cigarettes is harmful to both children and adults. Learn more about the health effects of secondhand smoke.

Light Cigarettes

You may have chosen low-tar, mild, light, or ultra light cigarettes in the past because they seemed less harmful. However—if you took long, deep, or frequent puffs—tar exposure from light cigarettes was just as high as that from regular cigarettes.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (PDF – 340 KB) bans tobacco manufacturers from using the terms “light,” “low,” or “mild” in product labeling and advertisements. This provision went into effect on June 22, 2010.

All cigarettes are harmful. Learn more about the health effects of light cigarettes.

Menthol Cigarettes

Menthol is an additive in cigarettes. Brands marketed as menthol cigarettes have enough menthol added to describe them as having a menthol flavor. However, brands not labeled as menthol may contain low levels of it as well.

No tobacco product is safe. Learn more about the health effects of menthol cigarettes.

Cigars and Pipes

From 2000 to 2011, the use of non-cigarette smoked tobacco products increased dramatically. The largest increases were in use of pipe tobacco—used for roll-your-own cigarettes—and large cigars.

No tobacco product is safe. Cigars are large, rolled bundles of dried and cured tobacco. There are three major types of cigars sold in the United States—large cigars, cigarillos, and little cigars. While some people still use traditional pipes with a bow, pipe tobacco is often purchased for roll your own cigarettes.

Like cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco smoke contains toxic and cancer causing chemicals that are harmful to both smokers and nonsmokers. Unlike cigarettes, cigars sold in the United States are permitted to be manufactured with flavors, which can mask the harshness of tobacco and appeal particularly to youth and young adults. Learn more about the health effects of smoking cigars and pipes. 

Bidis and Kreteks (Clove Cigarettes)

Bidis are small, thin, hand-rolled cigarettes primarily imported to the United States from India and other Southeast Asian countries. They are tobacco wrapped in a tendu or temburni leaf—plants native to Asia—that may be tied with colorful string at one or both ends. Bidis can be flavored—such as chocolate, cherry, or mango—or unflavored. Flavored bidis, however, are not allowed in the United States because of the ban on flavored cigarettes.

Kreteks—sometimes referred to as clove cigarettes—are imported from Indonesia. They typically contain about 60% tobacco and 40% ground cloves. Kreteks are banned in the United States because of the ban on flavored cigarettes.

No tobacco product is safe. A limited amount of research on the long-term health effects of bidis and kreteks has been conducted in the United States. However, research studies from India show that bidi smoking is associated with cancer and other health conditions. Additionally, research studies from Indonesia show that kretek smoking is associated with lung problems.

Hookahs

Hookahs—sometimes called water pipes—are used to smoke specially made tobacco that is available in a variety of flavors. Hookahs originated in ancient Persia and India and have been used for centuries. A typical modern hookah has a head (with holes in the bottom), a metal body, a water bowl, and a flexible hose with a mouthpiece. Tobacco smoke is drawn through water or ice in the water bowl and cooled before it is inhaled.

While hookah smokers may consider this practice less harmful than smoking cigarettes, no tobacco product is safe. Water pipe smoking delivers the addictive drug nicotine and hookah smokers may absorb higher concentrations of the toxins found in cigarette smoke. A typical 1-hour-long hookah smoking session involves inhaling 100–200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette.

Learn more about:

• The ban on flavored cigarettes in this U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance document
• How tobacco smoke causes disease in this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) booklet
• Light cigarettes and cancer risk from this National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), fact sheet
• The health risks associated with “light” tobacco products from this FDA update
• The safety of tobacco products and FDA’s work to ensure tobacco products are labeled properly
• Menthol cigarettes from this NCI report
• FDA's work to ensure tobacco products are labeled properly
• The definitions of common tobacco terms from NCI’s SmokeFree.gov
• Bidis and kreteks from this CDC fact sheet
• Why people use tobacco in this FDA consumer health report
• Hookahs from this CDC fact sheet