Editing Cigarette (section)

=== Additives ===
Various additives are combined into the shredded tobacco product mixtures, with [[humectant]]s such as [[propylene glycol]] or [[glycerol]], as well as flavoring products and enhancers such as [[cocoa solids]], [[liquorice|licorice]], tobacco extracts, and various sugars, which are known collectively as "casings".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Bregman |first=Rutger |date=2024-05-08 |title=Abolish the tobacco industry – no one should be allowed to addict and poison others on an industrial scale |url=https://www.moralambition.org/stories/abolish-the-tobacco-industry |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=www.moralambition.org |language=en}}</ref> The leaf tobacco is then shredded, along with a specified amount of small laminate, expanded tobacco, BL, RL, ES, and IS. A perfume-like flavor/fragrance, called the "topping" or "toppings", which is most often formulated by [[:Category:flavor companies|flavor companies]], is then blended into the tobacco mixture to improve the consistency in flavor and taste of the cigarettes associated with a certain [[brand|brand name]].<ref name=DEMerrill/> Additionally, they replace lost flavors due to the repeated wetting and drying used in processing the tobacco. Finally, the tobacco mixture is filled into cigarette tubes and packaged.

A list of 599 [[List of additives in cigarettes|cigarette additives]], created by five major American cigarette companies, was approved by the Department of Health and Human Services in April 1994. None of these additives is listed as an ingredient on the cigarette packs. Chemicals are added for [[organoleptic]] purposes and many boost the addictive properties of cigarettes, especially when burned.{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}}

One of the classes of chemicals on the list, [[ammonia]] salts, convert bound nicotine molecules in tobacco smoke into free nicotine molecules.<ref name=":0" /> This process, known as [[free base|freebasing]], could potentially increase the effect of nicotine on the smoker, but experimental data suggests that absorption is, in practice, unaffected.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.fct.2008.02.021 |pmid=18450355 |title=The possible role of ammonia toxicity on the exposure, deposition, retention, and the bioavailability of nicotine during smoking |journal=Food and Chemical Toxicology |volume=46 |issue=6 |pages=1863–81 |year=2008 |last1=Seeman |first1=Jeffrey I. |last2=Carchman |first2=Richard A. }}</ref>