A cigarette filter, also known as a filter tip, is a component of a cigarette, along with cigarette paper, capsules and adhesives. Filters were introduced in the early 1950s.
Filters in a new and used cigarette. Filters were designed to turn brown with use to give the illusion that they were effective at reducing the harmfulness.
Spent cigarette filter
A cigarette butt littered on the ground
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opposite end. Cigarette smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption. The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette, but the word is sometimes used to refer to other substances, such as a cannabis cigarette or a herbal cigarette. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its usually smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping, which is typically white.
A filtered cigarette
An electronic cigarette
A reproduction of a carving from the temple at Palenque, Mexico, depicting a Maya deity using a smoking tube
Francisco Goya's La Cometa, depicting a (foreground left) man smoking an early quasicigarette
