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Cigarette

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.

There are significant negative health effects from smoking cigarettes such as cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, birth defects, and other health problems relating to nearly every organ of the body. Most modern cigarettes are filtered, although this does not make the smoke inhaled from them contain fewer carcinogens and harmful chemicals. Nicotine, the psychoactive drug in tobacco, makes cigarettes highly addictive. About half of cigarette smokers die of tobacco-related disease and lose on average 14 years of life. Every year, cigarette smoking causes more than 8 million deaths worldwide; more than 1.3 million of these are non-smokers dying as the result of exposure to secondhand smoke. These harmful effects have led to strict legislation that has prohibited smoking in many workplaces and public areas, regulated marketing and purchasing age of tobacco, and levied taxes to discourage cigarette use.

In the 21st century, a product called an electronic cigarette (also called an e-cigarette or vape) was developed, in which the substance contained within it (typically a liquid solution containing nicotine) is vaporized by a battery-powered heating element, as opposed to being burned. Such devices are commonly promoted by their manufacturers as safer alternatives to conventional cigarettes, although there are some health risks associated with their use. Since e-cigarettes are a relatively new product, scientists do not possess data on their possible long-term health effects.

Global

The earliest forms of cigarettes were similar to their predecessor, the cigar. Cigarettes appear to have had antecedents in Mexico and Central America around the 9th century in the form of reeds and smoking tubes. The Maya, and later the Aztecs, smoked tobacco and other psychoactive drugs in religious rituals and frequently depicted priests and deities smoking on pottery and temple engravings. The cigarette and the cigar were the most common methods of smoking in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America until recent times.

The North American, Central American, and South American cigarette used various plant wrappers; when it was brought back to Spain, maize wrappers were introduced, and by the 17th century, fine paper. The resulting product was called papelate and is documented in Goya's paintings La Cometa, La Merienda en el Manzanares, and El juego de la pelota a pala (18th century).

By 1830, the cigarette had crossed into France, where it received the name cigarette; and in 1845, the French state tobacco monopoly began manufacturing them. The French word made its way into English in the 1840s. Some American reformers promoted the spelling cigaret, but this was never widespread and is now largely abandoned. Cigarettes are sometimes also called a fag in British slang.

The first patented cigarette-making machine was invented by Juan Nepomuceno Adorno of Mexico in 1847. In the 1850s, Turkish cigarette leaves had become popular. However, production climbed markedly when another cigarette-making machine was developed in the 1880s by James Albert Bonsack, which vastly increased the productivity of cigarette companies, which went from making about 40,000 hand-rolled cigarettes daily to around 4 million. At the time, these imported cigarettes from the United States had significant sales among British smokers.

In the English-speaking world, the use of tobacco in cigarette form became increasingly widespread during and after the Crimean War, when British soldiers began emulating their Ottoman Turkish comrades and Russian enemies, who had begun rolling and smoking tobacco in strips of old newspaper for lack of proper cigar-rolling leaf. This was helped by the development of tobaccos suitable for cigarette use, and by the development of the Egyptian cigarette export industry.

Cigarettes may have been initially used in a manner similar to pipes, cigars, and cigarillos and not inhaled. As cigarette tobacco became milder and more acidic, inhaling may have become perceived as more agreeable; a sentiment supported by advertising in the 1930s. However, Helmuth von Moltke noticed in the 1830s that Ottomans (and he himself) inhaled the Turkish tobacco and Latakia from their pipes (which are both initially sun-cured, acidic leaf varieties). The widespread smoking of cigarettes in the Western world is largely a 20th-century phenomenon. By the late 19th century cigarettes were known as coffin nails but the link between lung cancer and smoking was not established until the 20th century. German doctors were the first to make the link, and it led to the first antitobacco movement in Nazi Germany.

During World War I and World War II, cigarettes were rationed to soldiers. During the Vietnam War, cigarettes were included with C-ration meals. In 1975, the U.S. government stopped putting cigarettes in military rations. During the second half of the 20th century, the adverse health effects of tobacco smoking started to become widely known and printed health warnings became common on cigarette packets.

Graphical cigarette warning labels are a more effective method to communicate to the public the dangers of cigarette smoking. Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Hungary, the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Singapore, Egypt, Jordan, Nepal and Turkey all have both textual warnings and graphic visual images displaying, among other things, the damaging effects tobacco use has on the human body. The United States has implemented textual but not graphical warnings.

The cigarette has evolved much since its conception; for example, the thin bands that travel transverse to the "axis of smoking" (thus forming circles along the length of the cigarette) are alternate sections of thin and thick paper to facilitate effective burning when being drawn, and retard burning when at rest. Synthetic particulate filters may remove some of the tar before it reaches the smoker.

The "holy grail" for cigarette companies has been a cancer-free cigarette. On record, the closest historical attempt was produced by scientist James Mold. Under the name project TAME, he produced the XA cigarette. However, in 1978, his project was terminated.

Since 1950, the average nicotine and tar content of cigarettes has steadily fallen. Research has shown that the fall in overall nicotine content has led to smokers inhaling larger volumes per puff.

United States
One entrepreneur who was quick to spot the advantages of machine-made cigarettes was James Buchanan Duke. Previously a producer of smoking tobacco only, his firm, W. Duke & Sons & Co., entered the cigarette industry in the early 1880s. After installing two Bonsack machines, Duke spent heavily on advertising and sales promotion with the result that by 1889 his was the largest cigarette manufacturer in the country. The new Bonsack machines were of decisive importance in rapid, cheap manufacture of all tobacco products but one. Cigars needed slow, laborious hand rolling and were produced in hundreds of small workshops, especially in New York City. In 1890 Duke and the other four major cigarette companies combined to form the American Tobacco Company, a firm that dominated the market and used aggressive tactics on hundreds of small competitors until they sold out. It was called the "Tobacco Trust." The trust soon expanded its operations to include cigars, smoking, chewing tobacco and snuff. Among the companies drawn into this organization were plug manufacturers, Liggett & Myers and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which at the time produced twist and flat plug, and P. Lorillard, an old-line manufacturer of snuff. By 1910 the trust produced 86% of all cigarettes produced in the United States, and 75% to 95% of other forms, but only 14% of the cigars.

At the start of the 20th century, the per capita annual consumption in the U.S. was 54 cigarettes (with fewer than 0.5% of the population smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year), and consumption there peaked at 4,259 per capita in 1965. At that time, about 50% of men and 33% of women smoked (defined as smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year). By 2000, consumption had fallen to 2,092 per capita, corresponding to about 30% of men and 22% of women smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year, and by 2006 per capita consumption had declined to 1,691; implying that about 21% of the population smoked 100 cigarettes or more per year.

Construction
Manufacturers have described the cigarette as "a drug administration system for the delivery of nicotine in acceptable and attractive form". Modern commercially manufactured cigarettes are seemingly simple objects consisting mainly of a tobacco blend, paper, PVA glue to bond the outer layer of paper together, and often also a cellulose acetate–based filter. While the assembly of cigarettes is straightforward, much focus is given to the creation of each of the components, in particular the tobacco blend. A key ingredient that makes cigarettes more addictive is the inclusion of reconstituted tobacco, which has additives to make nicotine more volatile as the cigarette burns.

Paper
The paper for holding the tobacco blend may vary in porosity to allow ventilation of the burning ember or contain materials that control the burning rate of the cigarette and stability of the produced ash. The papers used in tipping the cigarette (forming the mouthpiece) and surrounding the filter stabilize the mouthpiece from saliva and moderate the burning of the cigarette, as well as the delivery of smoke with the presence of one or two rows of small laser-drilled air holes.

Tobacco blend
The process of blending gives the end product a consistent taste from batches of tobacco grown in different areas of a country that may change in flavor profile from year to year due to different environmental conditions.

Modern cigarettes produced after the 1950s, although composed mainly of shredded tobacco leaf, use a significant quantity of tobacco processing byproducts in the blend. Each cigarette's tobacco blend is made mainly from the leaves of flue-cured brightleaf, burley tobacco, and oriental tobacco. These leaves are selected, processed, and aged prior to blending and filling. The processing of brightleaf and burley tobaccos for tobacco leaf "strips" produces several byproducts such as leaf stems, tobacco dust, and tobacco leaf pieces ("small laminate"). To improve the economics of producing cigarettes, these byproducts are processed separately into forms where they can then be added back into the cigarette blend without an apparent or marked change in the cigarette's quality. The most common tobacco byproducts include:
 * Blended leaf (BL) sheet: a thin, dry sheet cast from a paste made with tobacco dust collected from tobacco stemming, finely milled burley-leaf stem, and pectin.
 * Reconstituted leaf (RL) sheet: a paper-like material made from recycled tobacco fines, tobacco stems and "class tobacco", which consists of tobacco particles less than 30 mesh in size (about 0.6 mm) that are collected at any stage of tobacco processing: RL is made by extracting the soluble chemicals in the tobacco byproducts, processing the leftover tobacco fibers from the extraction into a paper, and then reapplying the extracted materials in concentrated form onto the paper in a fashion similar to what is done in paper sizing. At this stage, ammonium additives are applied to make reconstituted tobacco an effective nicotine delivery system.
 * Expanded (ES) or improved stem (IS): ES is rolled, flattened, and shredded leaf stems that are expanded by being soaked in water and rapidly heated. Improved stem follows the same process, but is simply steamed after shredding. Both products are then dried. These products look similar in appearance, but are different in taste.

According to data from the World Health Organization, the amount of tobacco per 1000 cigarettes fell from 2.28 lb in 1960 to 0.91 lb in 1999, largely as a result of reconstituting tobacco, fluffing, and additives.

A recipe-specified combination of brightleaf, burley-leaf, and oriental-leaf tobacco is mixed with various additives to improve its flavors. Most commercially available cigarettes today contain tobacco that is treated with sugar to counter the harshness of the smoke.

Additives
Various additives are combined into the shredded tobacco product mixtures, with humectants such as propylene glycol or glycerol, as well as flavoring products and enhancers such as cocoa solids, licorice, tobacco extracts, and various sugars, which are known collectively as "casings". 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 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 name. 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 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.

One of the classes of chemicals on the list, ammonia salts, convert bound nicotine molecules in tobacco smoke into free nicotine molecules. This process, known as freebasing, could potentially increase the effect of nicotine on the smoker, but experimental data suggests that absorption is, in practice, unaffected.

Cigarette tube
Cigarette tubes are prerolled cigarette paper usually with an acetate or paper filter at the end. They have an appearance similar to a finished cigarette, but are without any tobacco or smoking material inside. The length varies from Regular (70 mm) to King Size (84 mm) as well as 100s (100 mm) and 120s (120 mm).

Filling a cigarette tube is usually done with a cigarette injector (also known as a shooter). Cone-shaped cigarette tubes, known as cones, can be filled using a packing stick or straw because of their shape. Cone smoking is popular because as the cigarette burns, it tends to get stronger and stronger. A cone allows more tobacco to be burned at the beginning than the end, allowing for an even flavor

The United States Tobacco Taxation Bureau defines a cigarette tube as "Cigarette paper made into a hollow cylinder for use in making cigarettes."

Cigarette filter
A cigarette filter or filter tip is a component of a cigarette. Filters are typically made from cellulose acetate fibre. Most factory-made cigarettes are equipped with a filter; those who roll their own can buy them separately. Filters can reduce some substances from smoke but do not make cigarettes any safer to smoke.

Cigarette butt

In North America, the common name for the remains of a cigarette after smoking is a cigarette butt. In Britain, it is also called a fag-end or a dog-end. The butt is typically about 30% of the cigarette's original length. It consists of a tissue tube which holds a filter and some remains of tobacco mixed with ash.

They are the most numerically frequent litter in the world. Cigarette butts accumulate outside buildings, on parking lots, and streets where they can be transported through storm drains to streams, rivers, and beaches. In a 2013 trial, the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, partnered with TerraCycle to create a system for recycling of cigarette butts. A reward of 1¢ per collected butt was offered to determine the effectiveness of a deposit system similar to that of beverage containers.

Electronic cigarette

An electronic cigarette (commonly known as a vape) is a handheld battery-powered vaporizer that simulates smoking by providing some of the behavioral aspects of smoking, including the hand-to-mouth action of smoking, but without combusting tobacco. Using an e-cigarette is known as "vaping" and the user is referred to as a "vaper" or "vapist". Instead of cigarette smoke, the user inhales an aerosol, commonly called vapor. E-cigarettes typically have a heating element that atomizes a liquid solution called e-liquid. E-cigarettes are automatically activated by taking a puff; others turn on manually by pressing a button. Some e-cigarettes look like traditional cigarettes, but they come in many variations. Most versions are reusable, though some are disposable. There are first-generation, second-generation, third-generation, and fourth-generation devices. E-liquids usually contain propylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine, flavorings, additives, and differing amounts of contaminants. E-liquids are also sold without propylene glycol, nicotine, or flavors.

The benefits and the health risks of e-cigarettes are uncertain. There is moderate-certainty evidence that e-cigarettes with nicotine may help people quit smoking when compared with e-cigarettes without nicotine and nicotine replacement therapy. However, other studies have not supported the finding that e-cigarettes are proven to be more effective than smoking cessation medicine. There is concern with the possibility that non-smokers and children may start nicotine use with e-cigarettes at a rate higher than anticipated than if they were never created. Following the possibility of nicotine addiction from e-cigarette use, there is concern children may start smoking cigarettes. Youth who use e-cigarettes are more likely to go on to smoke cigarettes. Their part in tobacco harm reduction is unclear, while another review found they appear to have the potential to lower tobacco-related death and disease. Regulated US Food and Drug Administration nicotine replacement products may be safer than e-cigarettes, but e-cigarettes are generally seen as safer than combusted tobacco products. It is estimated their safety risk to users is similar to that of smokeless tobacco. The long-term effects of e-cigarette use are unknown. The risk from serious adverse events was reported in 2016 to be low. Less serious adverse effects include abdominal pain, headache, blurry vision, throat and mouth irritation, vomiting, nausea, and coughing. Nicotine itself is associated with some health harms. In 2019 and 2020, an outbreak of severe lung illness throughout the US was linked to the use of vaping products

E-cigarettes create vapor made of fine and ultrafine particles of particulate matter, which have been found to contain propylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine, flavors, small amounts of toxicants, carcinogens, and heavy metals, as well as metal nanoparticles, and other substances. Its exact composition varies across and within manufacturers, and depends on the contents of the liquid, the physical and electrical design of the device, and user behavior, among other factors. E-cigarette vapor potentially contains harmful chemicals not found in tobacco smoke. E-cigarette vapor contains fewer toxic chemicals, and lower concentrations of potential toxic chemicals than cigarette smoke. The vapor is probably much less harmful to users and bystanders than cigarette smoke, although concern exists that the exhaled vapor may be inhaled by non-users, particularly indoors.

Smokers
The harm from smoking comes from the many toxic chemicals in the natural tobacco leaf and those formed in smoke from burning tobacco. People keep smoking because the nicotine, the primary psychoactive chemical in cigarettes, is highly addictive. Cigarettes, like narcotics, have been described as "strategically addictive", with the addictive properties being a core component of the business strategy. About half of smokers die from a smoking-related cause. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart, liver, and lungs, being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (including emphysema and chronic bronchitis), and cancer   (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer). It also causes peripheral vascular disease and hypertension. Children born to women who smoke during pregnancy are at higher risk of congenital disorders, cancer, respiratory disease, and sudden death. On average, each cigarette smoked is estimated to shorten life by 11 minutes. Starting smoking earlier in life and smoking cigarettes higher in tar increases the risk of these diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco causes 8 million deaths each year as of 2019 and 100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century. Cigarettes produce an aerosol containing over 4,000 chemical compounds, including nicotine, carbon monoxide, acrolein, and oxidant substances. Over 70 of these are carcinogens.

The most important chemical compounds causing cancer are those that produce DNA damage since such damage appears to be the primary underlying cause of cancer. Cunningham et al. combined the microgram weight of the compound in the smoke of one cigarette with the known genotoxic effect per microgram to identify the most carcinogenic compounds in cigarette smoke. The seven most important carcinogens in tobacco smoke are shown in the table, along with DNA alterations they cause. "Ulcerative colitis is a condition of nonsmokers in which nicotine is of therapeutic benefit." A recent review of the available scientific literature concluded that the apparent decrease in Alzheimer disease risk may be simply because smokers tend to die before reaching the age at which it normally occurs. "Differential mortality is always likely to be a problem where there is a need to investigate the effects of smoking in a disorder with very low incidence rates before age 75 years, which is the case of Alzheimer's disease", it stated, noting that smokers are only half as likely as nonsmokers to survive to the age of 80.

Gateway theory
A very strong argument has been made about the association between adolescent exposure to nicotine by smoking conventional cigarettes and the subsequent onset of using other dependence-producing substances. Strong temporal and dose-dependent associations have been reported, and a plausible biological mechanism (via rodent and human modeling) suggests that long-term changes in the neural reward system take place as a result of adolescent smoking. Adolescent smokers of conventional cigarettes have disproportionately high rates of comorbid substance use, and longitudinal studies have suggested that early adolescent smoking may be a starting point or "gateway" for substance use later in life, with this effect more likely for persons with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although factors such as genetic comorbidity, innate propensity for risk-taking, and social influences may underlie these findings, both human neuroimaging and animal studies suggest a neurobiological mechanism also plays a role. In addition, behavioral studies in adolescent and young adult smokers have revealed an increased propensity for risk-taking, both generally and in the presence of peers, and neuroimaging studies have shown altered frontal neural activation during a risk-taking task as compared with nonsmokers. In 2011, Rubinstein and colleagues used neuroimaging to show decreased brain response to a natural reinforcer (pleasurable food cues) in adolescent light smokers (1–5 cigarettes per day), with their results highlighting the possibility of neural alterations consistent with nicotine dependence and altered brain response to reward even in adolescent low-level smokers.

Second-hand smoke
Second-hand smoke is a mixture of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. It is involuntarily inhaled, lingers in the air for hours after cigarettes have been extinguished, and can cause a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma. Nonsmokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke at home or work increase their heart disease risk by 25–30% and their lung cancer risk by 20–30%. Second-hand smoke has been estimated to cause 38,000 deaths per year, of which 3,400 are deaths from lung cancer in nonsmokers. Sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections, respiratory infections, and asthma attacks can occur in children who are exposed to second-hand smoke. Scientific evidence shows that no level of exposure to second-hand smoke is safe.

Smoking restrictions
Many governments impose restrictions on smoking tobacco, especially in public areas. The primary justification has been the negative health effects of second-hand smoke. Laws vary by country and locality. Nearly all countries have laws restricting places where people can smoke in public, and over 40 countries have comprehensive smoke-free laws that prohibit smoking in virtually all public venues.

Smoking age
In the United States, the age to buy tobacco products is 21 in all states as of 2020.

Similar laws exist in many other countries. In Canada, most of the provinces require smokers to be 19 years of age to purchase cigarettes (except for Quebec and the prairie provinces, where the age is 18). However, the minimum age only concerns the purchase of tobacco, not use. Alberta, however, does have a law which prohibits the possession or use of tobacco products by all persons under 18, punishable by a $100 fine. Australia, New Zealand, Poland, and Pakistan have a nationwide ban on the selling of all tobacco products to people under the age of 18.

Since October 1, 2007, it has been illegal for retailers to sell tobacco in all forms to people under the age of 18 in three of the UK's four constituent countries (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland), rising from 16. It is also illegal to sell lighters, rolling papers, and all other tobacco-associated items to people under 18. It is not illegal for people under 18 to buy or smoke tobacco, just as it was not previously for people under 16; it is only illegal for the said retailer to sell the item. The age increase from 16 to 18 came into force in Northern Ireland on September 1, 2008. In the Republic of Ireland, bans on the sale of the smaller 10-packs and confectionery that resembles tobacco products (candy cigarettes) came into force on May 31, 2007, in a bid to cut underaged smoking. In October 2023 it was announced that the government proposed introducing a ban on sales of cigarettes to anyone born after 2008.

Most countries in the world have a legal vending age of 18. In North Macedonia, Italy, Malta, Austria, Luxembourg, and Belgium, the age for legal vending is 16. Since January 1, 2007, all cigarette machines in public places in Germany must attempt to verify a customer's age by requiring the insertion of a debit card. Turkey, which has one of the highest percentage of smokers in its population, has a legal age of 18. Japan is one of the highest tobacco-consuming nations, and requires purchasers to be 20 years of age. Since July 2008, Japan has enforced this age limit at cigarette vending machines through use of the taspo smart card. In other countries, such as Egypt, it is legal to use and purchase tobacco products regardless of age. Germany raised the purchase age from 16 to 18 on September 1, 2007.

Some police departments in the United States occasionally send an underaged teenager into a store where cigarettes are sold, and have the teen attempt to purchase cigarettes, with their own or no ID. If the vendor then completes the sale, the store is issued a fine. Similar enforcement practices are regularly performed by Trading Standards officers in the UK, Israel, and the Republic of Ireland.

Taxation
Cigarettes are taxed both to reduce use, especially among youth, and to raise revenue. Higher prices for cigarettes discourage smoking. Every 10% increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by about 7% and overall cigarette consumption by about 4%. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that globally cigarettes be taxed at a rate of three-quarters of cigarettes sale price as a way of deterring cancer and other negative health outcomes.

Cigarette sales are a significant source of tax revenue in many localities. This fact has historically been an impediment for health groups seeking to discourage cigarette smoking, since governments seek to maximize tax revenues. Furthermore, some countries have made cigarettes a state monopoly, which has the same effect on the attitude of government officials outside the health field.

In the United States, states are a primary determinant of the total tax rate on cigarettes. Generally, states that rely on tobacco as a significant farm product tend to tax cigarettes at a low rate. Coupled with the federal cigarette tax of $1.01 per pack, total cigarette-specific taxes range from $1.18 per pack in Missouri to $8.00 per pack in Silver Bay, New York. As part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the federal government collects user fees to fund Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory measures over tobacco.

Fire-safe cigarette
Cigarettes are a frequent source of deadly fires in private homes, which prompted both the European Union and the United States to require cigarettes to be fire-standard compliant.

According to Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at the University of Sydney, reduction of burning agents in cigarettes would be a simple and effective means of dramatically reducing the ignition propensity of cigarettes. Since the 1980s, prominent cigarette manufacturers such as Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds have developed fire safe cigarettes, but Phillip Morris was later the subject of a government lawsuit for allegedly hiding the even greater dangers associated with their brand of such cigarettes.

The burn rate of cigarette paper is regulated through the application of different forms of microcrystalline cellulose to the paper. Cigarette paper has been specially engineered by creating bands of different porosity to create "fire-safe" cigarettes. These cigarettes have a reduced idle burning speed which allows them to self-extinguish. This fire-safe paper is manufactured by mechanically altering the setting of the paper slurry.

New York was the first U.S. state to mandate that all cigarettes manufactured or sold within the state comply with a fire-safe standard. Canada has passed a similar nationwide mandate based on the same standard. All U.S. states are gradually passing fire-safe mandates.

The European Union in 2011 banned cigarettes that do not meet a fire-safety standard. According to a study made by the European Union in 16 European countries, 11,000 fires were due to people carelessly handling cigarettes between 2005 and 2007. This caused 520 deaths with 1,600 people injured.

Cigarette advertising
Many countries have restrictions on cigarette advertising, promotion, sponsorship, and marketing. For example, in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the retail store display of cigarettes is completely prohibited if persons under the legal age of consumption have access to the premises. In Ontario, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec, Canada and the Australian Capital Territory the display of tobacco is prohibited for everyone, regardless of age, as of 2010. This retail display ban includes noncigarette products such as cigars and blunt wraps.

Warning messages in packages
As a result of tight advertising and marketing prohibitions, tobacco companies look at the pack differently: they view it as a strong component in displaying brand imagery and a creating significant in-store presence at the point of purchase. Market testing shows the influence of this dimension in shifting the consumer's choice when the same product displays in an alternative package. Companies have manipulated a variety of elements in packs designs to communicate the impression of lower in tar or milder cigarettes, whereas the components were the same.

Some countries require cigarette packs to contain warnings about health hazards. The United States was the first, later followed by other countries including Canada, most of Europe, Australia, Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In 1985, Iceland became the first country to enforce graphic warnings on cigarette packaging. At the end of December 2010, new regulations from Ottawa increased the size of tobacco warnings to cover three-quarters of the cigarette package in Canada. As of November 2010, 39 countries have adopted similar legislation.

In February 2011, the Canadian government passed regulations requiring cigarette packs to contain 12 new images to cover 75% of the outside panel and eight new health messages on the inside panel with full color.

As of April 2011, Australian regulations require all packs to use a bland olive green that researchers determined to be the least attractive color, with 75% coverage on the front of the pack and all of the back consisting of graphic health warnings. The only feature that differentiates one brand from another is the product name in a standard color, position, font size, and style. Similar policies have since been adopted in France and the United Kingdom. In response to these regulations, Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco Inc., British American Tobacco Plc., and Imperial Tobacco attempted to sue the Australian government. On August 15, 2012, the High Court of Australia dismissed the suit and made Australia the first country to introduce brand-free plain cigarette packaging with health warnings covering 90 and 70% of back and front packaging, respectively. This took effect on December 1, 2012.

Prohibition of tobacco
A few countries have outlawed tobacco completely or made plans to do so. In 2004, Bhutan became the first country in the world to completely outlaw the cultivation, harvesting, production, and sale of tobacco and tobacco products. Enforcement of the prohibition increased with the passage of the Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan 2010. However, small allowances for personal possession are permitted as long as the possessors can prove that they have paid import duties. The Pitcairn Islands had previously banned the sale of cigarettes, but it now permits sales from a government-run store. The Pacific island of Niue hopes to become the next country to prohibit the sale of tobacco. Iceland is also proposing banning tobacco sales from shops, making it prescription-only and therefore dispensable only in pharmacies on doctor's orders. Singapore and the Australian state of Tasmania have proposed a 'tobacco free millennium generation initiative' by banning the sale of all tobacco products to anyone born in and after the year 2000. In March 2012, Brazil became the world's first country to ban all flavored tobacco including menthols. It also banned the majority of the estimated 600 additives used, permitting only eight. This regulation applies to domestic and imported cigarettes. Tobacco manufacturers had 18 months to remove the noncompliant cigarettes, 24 months to remove the other forms of noncompliant tobacco. Under sharia law, the consumption of cigarettes by Muslims is prohibited.

Environmental effects

Cigarette filters are made up of thousands of polymer chains of cellulose acetate, which has the chemical structure shown to the right. Once discarded into the environment, the filters create a large waste problem. Cigarette filters are the most common form of litter in the world, as approximately 5.6 trillion cigarettes are smoked every year worldwide. Of those, an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette filters become litter every year. To develop an idea of the waste weight amount produced a year the table below was created.

Discarded cigarette filters usually end up in the water system through drainage ditches and are transported by rivers and other waterways to the ocean.

Aquatic life health concerns
In the 2006 International Coastal Cleanup, cigarettes and cigarette butts constituted 24.7% of the total collected pieces of garbage, over twice as many as any other category, which is not surprising seeing the numbers in the table above of waste produced each year. Cigarette filters contain the chemicals filtered from cigarettes and can leach into waterways and water supplies. The toxicity of used cigarette filters depends on the specific tobacco blend and additives used by the cigarette companies. After a cigarette is smoked, the filter retains some of the chemicals, and some of those are considered carcinogenic. When studying the environmental effects of cigarette filters, the various chemicals that can be found in cigarette filters are not studied individually, due to the complexity of doing so. Researchers instead focus on the whole cigarette filter and its LD50. LD50 is defined as the lethal dose that kills 50% of a sample population. This allows for a simpler study of the toxicity of cigarette filters. One recent study has looked at the toxicity of smoked cigarette filters (smoked filter + tobacco), smoked cigarette filters (no tobacco), and unsmoked cigarette filters (no tobacco). The results of the study showed that for the LD50 of both marine topsmelt (Atherinops affinis) and freshwater fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas), smoked cigarette filters + tobacco are more toxic than smoked cigarette filters, but both are severely more toxic than unsmoked cigarette filters.

Other health concerns
Toxic chemicals are not the only human health concern to take into considerations; the others are cellulose acetate and carbon particles that are breathed in while smoking. These particles are suspected of causing lung damage. The next health concern is that of plants. Under certain growing conditions, plants on average grow taller and have longer roots than those exposed to cigarette filters in the soil. A connection exists between cigarette filters introduced to soil and the depletion of some soil nutrients over time. Another health concern to the environment is not only the toxic carcinogens that are harmful to the wildlife, but also the filters themselves pose an ingestion risk to wildlife that may presume filter litter as food. The last major health concern to make note of for marine life is the toxicity that deep marine topsmelt and fathead minnow pose to their predators. This could lead to toxin build-up (bioaccumulation) in the food chain and have long reaching negative effects. Smoldering cigarette filters have also been blamed for triggering fires from residential areas to major wildfires and bushfires which has caused major property damage and also death  as well as disruption to services by triggering alarms and warning systems.

Degradation
Once in the environment, cellulose acetate can go through biodegradation and photodegradation. Several factors go into determining the rate of each degradation process. This variance in rate and resistance to biodegradation in many conditions is a factor in littering and environmental damage.

Biodegradation
The first step in the biodegradation of cellulose acetate is the deactylation of the acetate from the polymer chain (which is the opposite of acetylation). An acetate is a negative ion with the chemical formula of C2H3O2−. Deacetylation can be performed by either chemical hydrolysis or acetylesterase. Chemical hydrolysis is the cleavage of a chemical bond by addition of water. In the reaction, water (H2O) reacts with the acetic ester functional group attached the cellulose polymer chain and forms an alcohol and acetate. The alcohol is simply the cellulose polymer chain with the acetate replaced with an alcohol group. The second reaction is exactly the same as chemical hydrolysis with the exception of the use of an acetylesterase enzyme. The enzyme, found in most plants, catalyzes the chemical reaction shown below.
 * acetic ester + H2O alcohol + acetate

In the case of the enzymatic reaction, the two substrates (reactants) are again acetic ester and H2O, the two products of the reaction are alcohol and acetate. This reaction is exactly the same as the chemical hydrolysis. Both of these products are perfectly fine in the environment. Once the acetate group is removed from the cellulose chain, the polymer can be readily degraded by cellulase, which is another enzyme found in fungi, bacteria, and protozoans. Cellulases break down the cellulose molecule into monosaccharides ("simple sugars") such as beta-glucose, or shorter polysaccharides and oligosaccharides. These simple sugars are not harmful to the environment and are in fact are a useful product for many plants and animals. The breakdown of cellulose is of interest in the field of biofuel. Due to the conditions that affect the process, large variation in the degradation time of cellulose acetate occurs.

Factors in biodegradation
The duration of the biodegradation process is cited as taking as little as one month to as long as 15 years or more, depending on the environmental conditions. The major factor that affects the biodegradation duration is the availability of acetylesterase and cellulase enzymes. Without these enzymes, biodegradation only occurs through chemical hydrolysis and stops there. Temperature is another major factor: if the organisms that contain the enzymes are too cold to grow, then biodegradation is severely hindered. Availability of oxygen in the environment also affects the degradation. Cellulose acetate is degraded within 2–3 weeks under aerobic assay systems of in vitro enrichment cultivation techniques and an activated sludge wastewater treatment system. It is degraded within 14 weeks under anaerobic conditions of incubation with special cultures of fungi. Ideal conditions were used for the degradation (i.e., a suitable temperature, and available organisms to provide the enzymes). Thus, filters last longer in places with low oxygen concentration, such as swamps and bogs. Overall, the biodegradation process of cellulose acetate is not an instantaneous process.

Photodegradation
The other process of degradation is photodegradation, which is when a molecular bond is broken by the absorption of photon radiation (i.e. light). Due to cellulose acetate carbonyl groups, the molecule naturally absorbs light at 260 nm, but it contains some impurities which can absorb light. These impurities are known to absorb light in the far UV light region (< 280 nm). The atmosphere filters radiation from the sun and allows radiation of > 300 nm only to reach the surface. Thus, the primary photodegradation of cellulose acetate is considered insignificant to the total degradation process, since cellulose acetate and its impurities absorb light at shorter wavelengths. Research is focused on the secondary mechanisms of photodegradation of cellulose acetate to help make up for some of the limitations of biodegradation. The secondary mechanisms would be the addition of a compound to the filters that would be able to absorb natural light and use it to start the degradation process. The main two areas of research are in photocatalytic oxidation and photosensitized degradation. Photocatalytic oxidation uses a species that absorbs radiation and creates hydroxyl radicals that react with the filters and start the breakdown. Photosensitized degradation, though, uses a species that absorbs radiation and transfers the energy to the cellulose acetate to start the degradation process. Both processes use other species that absorbed light > 300 nm to start the degradation of cellulose acetate.

Solution and remediation projects
Several options are available to help reduce the environmental effects of cigarette butts. Proper disposal into receptacles leads to decreased numbers found in the environment and their effect on the environment. Another method is making fines and penalties for littering filters; many governments have sanctioned stiff penalties for littering of cigarette filters; for example, Washington imposes a penalty of $1,025 for littering cigarette filters. Another option is developing better biodegradable filters; much of this work relies heavily on the research in the secondary mechanism for photodegradation as stated above, but a new research group has developed an acid tablet that goes inside the filters, and once wet enough, releases acid that speeds up the degradation to around two weeks. The research is still only in test phase and the hope is soon it will go into production. The next option is using cigarette packs with a compartment in which to discard cigarette butts, implementing monetary deposits on filters, increasing the availability of butt receptacles, and expanding public education. It may even be possible to ban the sale of filtered cigarettes altogether on the basis of their adverse environmental effects. Recent research has been put into finding ways to use the filter waste to develop a desired product. One research group in South Korea has developed a simple one-step process that converts the cellulose acetate in discarded cigarette filters into a high-performing material that could be integrated into computers, handheld devices, electrical vehicles, and wind turbines to store energy. These materials have demonstrated superior performance as compared to commercially available carbon, grapheme, and carbon nanotubes. The product is showing high promise as a green alternative for the waste problem.

Consumption
Smoking has become less popular, but is still a large public health problem globally. Worldwide, smoking rates fell from 41% in 1980 to 31% in 2012, although the actual number of smokers increased because of population growth. In 2017, 5.4 trillion cigarettes were produced globally, and were smoked by almost 1 billion people. Smoking rates have leveled off or declined in most countries, but is increasing in some low- and middle-income countries. The significant reductions in smoking rates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, and other countries that implemented strong tobacco control programs have been offset by the increasing consumption in low income countries, especially China. The Chinese market now consumes more cigarettes than all other low- and middle-income countries combined.

Other regions are increasingly playing larger roles in the growing global smoking epidemic. The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) now has the highest growth rate in the cigarette market, with more than a one-third increase in cigarette consumption since 2000. Due to its recent dynamic economic development and continued population growth, Africa presents the greatest risk in terms of future growth in tobacco use.

Within countries, patterns of cigarette consumption also can vary widely. For example, in many of the countries where few women smoke, smoking rates are often high in males (e.g., in Asia). By contrast, in most developed countries, female smoking rates are typically only a few percentage points below those of males. In many high and middle income countries lower socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of smoking.

Smoking rates in the United States have dropped by more than half from 1965 to 2016, falling from 42% to 15.5% of US adults. Australia is cutting their overall smoking consumption faster than most of the developed world, in part due to landmark Plain Packaging Act, which standardized the appearance of cigarette packs. Other countries have considered similar measures. In New Zealand, a bill has been presented to parliament in which the government's associate health minister said "takes away the last means of promoting tobacco as a desirable product."

Lights
Some cigarettes are marketed as "lights", "milds", or "low-tar". These cigarettes were historically marketed as being less harmful, but there is no research showing that they are any less harmful. The filter design is one of the main differences between light and regular cigarettes, although not all cigarettes contain perforated holes in the filter. In some light cigarettes, the filter is perforated with small holes that theoretically diffuse the tobacco smoke with clean air. In regular cigarettes, the filter does not include these perforations. In ultralight cigarettes, the filter's perforations are larger. The majority of major cigarette manufacturers offer a light, low-tar, or mild cigarette brand. Due to recent U.S. legislation prohibiting the use of these descriptors, tobacco manufacturers are turning to color-coding to allow consumers to differentiate between regular and light brands.

Research shows that smoking "light" or "low-tar" cigarettes is just as harmful as smoking other cigarettes.

Notable cigarette brands

 * 520
 * 555
 * Amber Leaf
 * Army Club
 * Ardath
 * Basic
 * Bel Air
 * Benson & Hedges
 * Berkeley
 * Camel
 * Capri
 * Chesterfield
 * Davidoff
 * Dunhill
 * Djarum
 * Doral
 * du Maurier
 * Eclipse
 * Embassy
 * Eve
 * Export A
 * Fatima
 * Fortuna
 * Gauloises
 * Gitanes
 * Gold Flake
 * Golden Virginia
 * Gold Leaf
 * Kyriazi Freres
 * Kent
 * Kool
 * Lambert and Butler
 * L&M
 * Lark
 * Lucky Strike
 * Marlboro
 * Mayfair
 * Merit
 * Mild Seven
 * More
 * Nat Sherman
 * Natural American Spirit
 * Newport
 * Next
 * Nil
 * Old Gold
 * Pall Mall
 * Parliament
 * Perilly's
 * Peter Stuyvesant
 * Peter Jackson
 * Philip Morris
 * Player's
 * Prince
 * Raleigh
 * Ronhill
 * Salem
 * Sampoerna
 * Senior Service
 * Smokin Joes
 * Sobranie
 * Sovereign
 * Sterling
 * Surya
 * Tareyton
 * Vantage
 * Viceroy
 * Virginia Slims
 * West
 * Woodbine
 * Windsor Blue
 * Winfield
 * Winston

Smoking cessation
Smoking cessation (quitting smoking) is the process of discontinuing the practice of tobacco smoking. Quitting can be difficult for many smokers due to the addictive nature of nicotine. The addiction begins when nicotine acts on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors to release neurotransmitters such as dopamine, glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid. Cessation of smoking leads to symptoms of nicotine withdrawal such as anxiety and irritability. Professional smoking cessation support methods generally endeavour to address both nicotine addiction and nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

Smoking cessation can be achieved with or without assistance from healthcare professionals or the use of medications. Methods that have been found to be effective include interventions directed at or through health care providers and health care systems; medications including nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and varenicline; individual and group counselling; and web-based or stand-alone computer programs. Although stopping smoking can cause short-term side effects such as reversible weight gain, smoking cessation services and activities are cost-effective because of the positive health benefits.

At the University of Buffalo, researchers found out that fruit and vegetable consumption can help a smoker cut down or even quit smoking
 * A growing number of countries have more ex-smokers than smokers.
 * Early "failure" is a normal part of trying to stop, and more than one attempt at stopping smoking prior to longer-term success is common.
 * NRT, other prescribed pharmaceuticals, and professional counselling or support also help many smokers.
 * However, up to three-quarters of ex-smokers report having quit without assistance ("cold turkey" or cut down then quit), and cessation without professional support or medication may be the most common method used by ex-smokers.

The number of nicotinic receptors in the brain returns to the level of a nonsmoker between 6 and 12 weeks after quitting. In 2019, the FDA authorized the selling of low-nicotine cigarettes in hopes of lowering the number of people addicted to nicotine.

Epidemiological and medical

 * Ernster, Virginia, et al. "Women and tobacco: moving from policy to action." Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78 (2000): 891-901. online
 * Frieden, Thomas R. et al. The Health Consequences of Smoking: 50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General (2014) online
 * Kluger, Richard. Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris (Vintage, 1997). excerpt
 * Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011).
 * Slade, John. "The tobacco epidemic: lessons from history." Journal of psychoactive drugs 21.3 (1989): 281-291. online
 * Warner, Kenneth E. 1986. Selling Smoke: Cigarette Advertising and Public Health (American Public Health Association, 1986). online
 * Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011).
 * Slade, John. "The tobacco epidemic: lessons from history." Journal of psychoactive drugs 21.3 (1989): 281-291. online
 * Warner, Kenneth E. 1986. Selling Smoke: Cigarette Advertising and Public Health (American Public Health Association, 1986). online

title: Cigarette


text:
User talk:RAE

Hey, Robert. Revisit the tobacco talk article and let me know what's up with "dipping" looseleaf, if you get a chance.

-Ben Brumfield

Vandal vs. userpage
Your userpage was attacked. Damage was reverted. -- Grunt  ҈  17:56, 2004 Sep 3 (UTC)

Your user page
I found your old user page while checking out some old edits. I have history merged it, so that all edits are in one place. Hope you don't mind. Graham 87 05:11, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Invitation to join the Fifteen Year Society
Dear ,

I'd like to extend a cordial invitation to you to join the Fifteen Year Society, an informal group for editors who've been participating in the Wikipedia project for fifteen years or more.

Best regards, Urhixidur (talk) 02:37, 9 June 2019 (UTC)

Unblock request
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BlockList?wpTarget=64.224.250.5&blockType=&limit=50&wpFormIdentifier=blocklist

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:RAE


text:
User talk:Benwbrum

Tell me what you think about my changes. Have I screwed everything up?

Hello. Yes epigraphie is a more general term. In English, there exists also the word epigrpahy (at least in Webster)

In French : épigraphe means something written on stone and epigraphy is the study of inscription. These two words may refer to Greek, latin,... inscriptions.

Hope my English is not too broken. Any other question ? (I am nearly a native speaker of French)

Youssefsan 01:45 Mar 1, 2003 (UTC)

I answered your request at Talk:Michael_Bellesiles. --Uncle Ed 15:20, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC)

As for User:Zestauferov, if you'll check his contribution history, you'll see it's all Cryptogeography and mad connections between unconnected peoples and amateur linguistics. At any rate, you're correct about Hetto-Iberian and Hattian and Heberite etc. Wetman 02:15, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)

 * So what is the appropriate course of action? I've gotten into edit wars with loons before, and it's really no fun at all.

 * I agree. Someone just has to raise a warning flag, but I'm not going to waste too much energy on this person. But he is deleting sound mainstream information and replacing it with his grandiose fantasy connections. And no one dares speak up because he's very abusive. Wetman 02:53, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Hi Ben, as one of those on Mr Z's "they're out to get me" list, let me explain the frustrations I've had with this individual.
 * 1) When I first encountered him over the Sea Peoples article, he insisted on pushing his mixure of fantasy & David Rohl into this article. Requests for him to explain where this material came from resulted in his calim that I "obviously" couldn't keep up with the latest publications in Russian, French & Georgian. He never explained why he couldn't take the time to introduce this material to the English-only world, though.
 * 2) When I confronted him over his (now gone) Heberite article, asking him detailed questions whence he drew his research, this resulted in his petulant cry that he was leaving Wikipedia, never to contriubte again. That wasn't the reaction I wanted (I just wanted him to provide his sources), & so basically ignored him for a few weeks, hoping he'd get over his "insult".
 * 3) Repeated requests on various Talk: pages (including his own) to document his assertions have been ignored. An odd response for one who claims to be a professional educator & scholar.
 * 4) Re-writing the David Rohl article brought forth accusations that my writing was "blatantly Anti-Rohl. The current article is obscenely biased and full of false facts and hearsay." Much of the information I used for the article either came from Rohl's own web page -- where he proudly details much of his pre-academic career -- or his books which I read. He hasn't answered my request for clarification.

I've pretty well decided to try to ignore him. I don't need the aggravation. I probably will chase down all of his fanciful articles relating to the Bible & replace them with material that would actually get a passing grade in a college freshman class, but only because I believe we deserve accuracy on Wikipedia. -- llywrch 01:20, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * I saw your point on my Talk: page, Ben, & I came here to say that you might have a point (I'll admit that many of Mr Z's stubs are acceptible) -- & then I saw his comment below.

 * [shrug] I guess the only way one can get along with what Mr Z posts is to agree with him -- or ignore him; any other policy simply leads to conflict, which is failed to be resolved due to his lack of cooperation. (Look at the record for yourself.) I hope you have better luck with him than I had.

 * P.S. I don't have any objection to space being devoted to Velikovsky on Wikipedia; he is a well-known individual whose opinions & theories require inclusion. My objection is when his theories & speculations are presented as proven fact. -- llywrch 21:32, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hi in answer to your question on Habiru just type tilda ~ four times ~ ~ ~ ~ without any spaces for the full date and signature. I won't bother reading what Wetman & his cronies have written in detail but I did notice that Llywrch has mixed and matched answers I have given him on varying subjects in different places to create his own fantasy. But you don;t have to take my word for it, just look through my history of contributions and see what I have written on the discussion Talk pages if you are really interested. At a glance your talk page here does seem like you are involved in back-biting. Anyway I won't judge you if you won't judge me. Also you can have fun playing with your user preferences. The link is under your unser name at the top righthand corner of the screen. All the bestZestauferov

Wikisource
Hi Ben. Thanks for your comment on your talk page. The truth is that I also liked the same suggestion you liked, about a sort of neutral domain for source texts in ancient languages. When I said that only an annotated text is "useful" I was thinking of the fact that that is simply the only way I've seen such texts published (they always seem to have scholarly apparatus). But maybe I overstated the case. In any event, a neutral place for the source-texts is a cool idea. Dovi 16:59, Oct 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Well, an unannotated text is better than a badly annotated one. Also, the raw text made publicly available gives everyone the chance to make an annotated edition, contrary to cases where scholars sit on unpublished texts for ages (Thebes tablets). The texts I put on Wikisource have of course all long been annotated (but contrary to the texts themselves, the annotations are copyrighted, of course) dab 08:59, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Old Hittite
I think the text was converted from the TITUS edition: On the basis of several editions electronically prepared by J. Tischler, Dresden, 1993; revised edition by H.C. Melchert, Chapel Hill, 1998; TITUS version by Jost Gippert, Frankfurt a/M, 1.6.2000 / 9.6.2002

Preliminary remarks of H.C. Melchert's version: Revised by Craig Melchert after a file supplied by Johann Tischler, whose generosity is gratefully acknowledged. I am responsible for all readings and morpheme analyses in the present version--HCM.

although I am not sure if the text is identical to the TITUS one. Note that there are strings "0xc3", ..., "0xc7", "0xab" in the text. These are letters with diacritics that were badly converted. I was still going to find out what they were and replace them. Also, the encoding could be more unicode-ish (S-hacek for $, subscript indices etc.). I think it will be easier to make these transformations before splitting up the text. regards, dab 08:59, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * re copyright, I am not a legal expert. The Texts themselves are obviously not copyrightable. But since the transcription actually contains more information than the original tablet, it may be. I don't think that there is any legal precedent for this case, because of the peculiarity of cuneiform transcription. In practice, these texts are freely circulated and quoted, with the academic courtesy of acknowledging the original transcriber. In the case of this digital text, its history may be complicated, and it may be a convolution of several transcription whose history is not veifiable. It seem that the text at least partially contains work by Melchert and Tischler, but we cannot claim that it is Melchert's or Tischler's text, since other changes might have been made.

 * re perl script: the text as it is on wikisource now is itself the result of a perlscript of mine. The leftover 0xab type things were signs for which I was not sure what it should be. it is not automatically correct to replace it with the xab html-entity «, rather you should figure out which sign it should be. The remaining html encoding you intend is of course good practice. I was going to do that myself sometime, but it was not on my immediate todo list, and I will be glad if you beat me to it.

regards, dab (ᛏ) 08:33, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Akkadian picture
It is from Heise. I figured akkaditum.png would be public domain because it's simply an image of a text string, using a standard font. But I might be wrong... if I am, tell me and I'll redraw it independently, though that would be a drag. - Mustafaa 23:26, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

 * Fair enough. I've got no idea of the legalities.  I tried to contact him about using his image library around 1995 for a different project, but never got a response.  Was hoping that you had. -Ben 23:35, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

A quick note
I have just archived part of the 1984 Talk page and arranged it for ease of reading - nothing changed, deleted or otherwise tampered with in terms of text. I also responded to the issues posed on both your new section and the original theme and also on stuff that should not be in the article. I now have to leave the Internet for a few hours and I may not be able to return to Wikipedia to respond to anything new until tomorrow. MPLX/MH 19:34, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC)

University of Houston
I saw your edit tag and I was not sure what to make of it. Dr. Kenneth Brown is widely quoted as being an archaelogist and also concerned with the subject of anthropology. These events took place in and around the year 1987. Is it your point that such a department never existed, or that one does not exist now, or that he was called an archaelogist who worked for UofH but not in a department by that name? Help me out please because I am trying to build the article and the last thing that I want to do is to build in errors. MPLX/MH 16:39, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks Ben, I have just gone back and listened to the soundtrack of a recording made from a TV interview with Dr. Brown about all of this and in his very first words he describes himself as being "Dr. Kenneth Brown of the Anthropology Department of the University of Houston ..." Unfortunately when I was using sources from the Houston Chronicle and Daily Telegraph they stressed archaeology and not anthropology. With regards to the silly aspects, Brown recited that he felt that he had stumbled into a political hornets nest and that his new lab was suddenly threatened with closure if he did not back off this particular investigation. I also have a political cartoon strip from that time which makes fun of the entire episode ... In the first panel is Charles I granting the patent to Heath; in the second is a ship wondering whether to drop anchor on the east coast or the in the Gulf; the fourth shows Cromwell taking away the patent and the fifth shows ... "Meanwhile - not so long ago in a city not so distant ... (bubble: "Look what we got here" - worker with Houston Public Works t-shirt), (bubble: "The Carolana Colony right under our own Fire Department lot!"), (bubble: "Well, do we tell the Mayor or do we bury it?") I am going to see if I can scan it and place it on line since I can get the copyright clearance on it. MPLX/MH 17:09, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I have just begun uploading a transcription (stop-start-stop-start) of the 4FTN interview. (I may have included a few typos that need to be weeded out!) I will at some try to get a frame off the TV program and post it on Wikipedia. For a lot of reasons I can't go into I can tell you from first hand knowledge that this subject has met with tremendous hostility in the past from "the powers that be" for a variety of reasons and both Brown and then 4FTN got caught up in the backlash. Wikipedia is wonderful because it is difficult to censor and it may be one of the greatest contributions to egalitarian freedom that has ever come along. It has its Jeffersonian (or was it Franklin?) warning though about being great if we can hold on to it. MPLX/MH 18:10, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Chomsky article
Thanks, Ben! Russil Wvong 18:05, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Austin Wikipedia Meetup
I have proposed an Austin meetup group for Wikipedians. Please join me at Mozart's on 2005-04-11. Bovlb 05:50, 2005 Mar 30 (UTC)

I guess that I'll be the one with the dorky "Wikipedia Meetup" sign. ☺ My preferred spot (weather and crowds permitting) at Mozart's is outside, on the lower deck at the far left (from the bar, walk towards the lake, and go down the stairs). It's a little hard to find, but you tend to get space and privacy. Do I need to mention that Mozart's has free WiFi? Bovlb 04:42, 2005 Mar 31 (UTC)

Next meetup is next Monday (2005-05-09); see Meetup/Austin. Hope to see you there. Bovlb 23:42, 2005 May 3 (UTC)

Factor/Factory
Ben -- Yes, I changed factor to factory because I thought it was a typo. Undoubtably others will think so too (because it's not one of those "typos" that's easy to glance over -- it took me a couple readings of the sentence to figure out what was intended), so I would recommend included a parenthetical note that "factor" is what snuff factories were called. However, it does seem odd to me that snuff factories would be called factors -- do you have a reference? (Or more than one, to discount the possiblity of a typo in your ref.) Just curious, not trying to force the issue. — Adam Conover † 01:53, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

 * Well, you are certainly more knowledgeable than myself on the subject, so I'll certainly defer to you. I would still make a parenthetical comment explaining the spelling, though, as it is confusing, and will be edited again otherwise.   —  Adam Conover † 01:40, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

Easter POV
Over at Talk:Easter a while ago you linked to an article citing an Australian (IIRC) researcher who had something definitive to say about Bede's "Eostre", and it was my impression at the time that this was the direction scholarly consensus was headed at the time. There's a disgruntled person over there now who's slapped an on it becuase it doesn't takes Bede or Grimm seriously enough for him and because I reverted an edit where he tried to turn it into almost as much a neopagan holiday as a Christian one. I wonder if you have any more references on current thought regarding Bede? Or do you recall the researcher's name and institution from the article? I think I can support what I said about Grimm (Tom Shippey's work on Tolkien is main source) and (IIRC) I can use Ronald Hutton against Bede, but other references might help. I have to admit that although I'm willing to take him on at the moment, this weekend will probably be far too full for me to devote as much attention as this is likely to require. Csernica 02:40, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Babylon & Zmmz

 * You're not wasting time. We each get 3 reverts.  He has already used at least 12 reverts to the "global empire" flakiness just in the last day...  Where we can really use your input is at Administrators'_noticeboard/3RR to hopefully get an admin's attention... ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 22:23, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

About Texas Rev.
Greetings.

I'm posting here to let you know I left a reply to you on Tex. Rev. talk

Sir Milas Boozefox The Third 21:16, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Ancient Near East warfare taskforce
I see you’re a member of WikiProject Ancient Near East. Might you be interested in WikiProject Military history/Ancient Near East warfare task force? See its talk page at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history Neddyseagoon 15:37, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Tobac
Ben, I've usually seen the heat introduced at ground level, then allowed to rise, and be vented at through the roof. I believe the previous wording suggested the heat was introduced at roof level. Cheers 24.0.86.182 15:45, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Texas in the Civil War
Ben, thanks for your kind words regarding my rewrite of the new section of the article Texas in the Civil War. I have added a small section per your comments regarding June 1865 and the Federal reoccupation of Texas. By the way, if you would like to contribute more Civil War material to Wikipedia, please use the style guide User:Hlj/CWediting and feel free to discuss or suggest any articles or changes to existing articles to the Civil War Task Force (WP:ACW). Regards! Scott Mingus 19:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

the dialects of Akkadian - please state your source
Hello Benwbrum,

On 05:04, 27 April 2002 you created the article Akkadian language. That first revision contained the following text:

Akkadian is divided into dialects based on geography and time.

 * 2500 - 1950 Old Akkadian
 * 1950 - 1530 Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian
 * 1530 - 1000 Middle Babylonian/Middle Assyrian
 * 1000 - 600 Neo-Babylonian/Neo-Assyrian
 * 600 B.C. - 100 A.D. Late Babylonian

This fragment has persisted in the article to this day. You gave no source for this information, and the current revision does not cite any source either. I'd like to request that you add a reference to the source of that information.

Thanks, Itayb 12:19, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Thanks for adding the reference. :)
 * I've slightly reorganized the references to this source on the page, making them more specific and interrelated. I hope you approve. Itayb 19:28, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

 * I don't understand what exactly you object to, and on what grounds.
 * Do you object to the very mentioning of the online resource? If so, it's not just a matter of reverting from my reorganization to the previous revision, because it already contained a link to this resource in the "External links" section. I've just changed its location to make the connection between it and the book reference more obvious.
 * But, if in fact you object to mentioning the online resource, then what are your reasons? I'll tell you what my reasons are for mentioning it: it's easier to verify statements (such as the one i asked you to cite a source to) that are based on this source, when it's available online. It has proved very convenient to me, for example. Unlike you, i don't have the book at home, and it spared me a trip to the library, assuming that there's a library nearby that holds a copy of the book; it is not improbable that many libraries around the world don't have a copy. Alternatively, i could have ordered this book for $17.50 (at Eisenbrauns), not including delivery (assuming they make deliveries to Israel, where i live). Even pretending that i weren't broke, you can't expect me, in my opinion, to buy a book whenever i want to verify the validity of a claim i bump into on a Wikipedia article. But you should encourage me, in my opinion, to do my best to verify as many such claims as possible.
 * Are you concerned that the site linked to violates copyright by displaying this material? If you have good reasons to suspect so, then by all means, remove any trace of this link. But please take into account, that only a small portion of the book is available via that URL, and the main page (the one linked to from the Wikipedia article) explicitly recommends buying the book, and gives a link to a book marketing site, which sells it. Itayb 08:35, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe I overstated my objections. I completely agree with you about verifiability, and have seen transparent access to sources resolve at least one nasty edit war (though it took a lot of typing to do it: User:Benwbrum/Hapiru. I guess I have two concerns about the reference to the scanned book, which you might be able to help me with.
 * Are references supposed to be aimed at the sources actually used in composing the article, or other sources that say the same thing? Though come to think of it, even if the former, then my distinction between an online version to an earlier edition and a not-terribly-useful bibliographic citation is probably still silly.
 * I'm a bit concerned about the tentative nature of the scanned book -- it appears that the webmaster is considering taking the scans down. If that happens, the citation may get lost.
 * Perhaps we can just have two references by that statement: one to the citation and one to the website. That way a change to the website wouldn't lose the citation.
 * -Ben 14:49, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Would you consider the following suggestion satisfactory?
 * The foot note does not link to the the contested URL. It simply states "Caplice" and the page number relative to each edition, say: "Caplice, p. 5 (1980), p. 42 (1983), p. 111 (1988, 2002)"
 * The References section remains almost as it is now, except that the last parentheses read: "(The 1980 edition is partly available online)"
 * If, at some future time, this link gets broken, that's no big deal: the person observing it could simply delete the link; it is, after all, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, isn't it? Itayb 15:46, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

 * I think your suggestion goes beyond satisfactory -- it's perfect! -Ben 20:02, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Almost Done. I didn't mention the pages relative to the later editions, though. Please fill in the missing details as best you can. Thanks Itayb 20:59, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Please review some references i've styled in the Ge'ez article
I'd appreciate it, if you reviewed some references i've styled in the Ge'ez language article, and told me your opinion about them in relation to the issues you've raised above. The references i refer to are: [CHA], [PAN03] and [PER]. Itayb 10:50, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Norman
Yes, I'm aware. I try my best to make the distinction clear, though at times it is somewhat difficult, especially during the transitionary period between Anglo-Norman and Anglo-French. Thanks for the reminder, all the same. As there is a lot of misunderstanding, even within Academia as to the difference between Norman and French, this is particularly important issue to try to get right. The Jade Knight (talk) 10:41, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll add that my expertise on the differences between Anglo-Norman and Anglo-French is rather limited. I'm fluent in French and quite familiar with modern Norman, but that isn't enough to pick up on some of these nuances, I'm afraid.  I'd be good if we had an Anglo-Norman expert around.  The Jade Knight (talk) 11:00, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Easter
Christmas is arguably more important, at least in terms of its far-reaching cultural effects. My change to the article doesn't deny Easter's importance; it merely alludes to importance of other Christian holidays. C1k3 (talk) 23:32, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Hey! Ben! I encourage you to return Easter debate on Etymology. I eagerly await your references for Ostern, the pronunciation of Iesus, the humor in my KJV reference, and a ton of others. Unless your willing to admit that I and my editing are correct!!!!. Your thoughts, both for and against, are greatly treasured by this dedicated user, and this pious Christian.

Sincerely, (and seriuosly)

Nate5713 (talk) 23:10, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Article Feedback deployment
Hey Benwbrum; I'm dropping you this note because you've used the article feedback tool in the last month or so. On Thursday and Friday the tool will be down for a major deployment; it should be up by Saturday, failing anything going wrong, and by Monday if something does :). Thanks, Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 22:23, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:51, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Contests
User:Dr. Blofeld has created WikiProject Africa/Contests. The idea is to run a series of contests/editathons focusing on each region of Africa. He has spoken to Wikimedia about it and $1000-1500 is possible for prize money. As someone who has previously expressed interest in African topics, would you be interested in contributing to one or assisting draw up core article/missing article lists? He says he's thinking of North Africa for an inaugural one in October. If interested please sign up in the participants section of the Contest page, thanks.♦ -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao Che dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 01:12, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Akkadian Pardesu
I was surprised to see the Persian Gardens article say that Akkadian borrowed the word from Persian. However, I was not sure how did the transition go from Akkadian to Greek?

It has to be during the Persian expansion into Mesopotamia, followed by the Hellenic expansion Mesopotamia? (500s ~ 200s) BC this era Aramaic became the Lingua Franca of the Persian Empire (in the West), so interaction with Greeks was common.

The Hebrew variant seems to be an earlier Aramaic variant without the Greek Suffix, while the Arabic could be later with Greek influence suffix Firdus? The Letter P & F switched many times in Semitic, so its difficult to use as a diagnostic marker because P & F are very close in Semitic, but the Greek Suffix that left its legacy in Middle Eastern Indo-Europeans & Semitic speakers in the region. The Armenians & older Iranian forms didn't use the same Hellenic suffix, that started appearing in words more often after the Hellenic era.

I assume you are an expert on Akkadian, which one comes first Wall? (Pardu) or Cool? (Pardu), in modern Semitic Pard is still dominant and used for Cool, while Parda shifted to Wall or Tent door & is becoming less used today. The desert concept of Paradise was the opposite of heat (shade) or (cool), but it difficult to know which one come first. Akkadian itself is so upstream in Proto-Semitic, which many of the words in the Levant region have some connection to Proto-Hurrian or other extinct languages spoken in the region prior to Proto-Semitic. Lishanashanta (talk) 15:43, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

 * Hi, Lishanashanta. I think you mis-read the article, which states: _The Avestan word pairidaēza-, Old Persian *paridaida-,[note 1] Median *paridaiza- (walled-around, i.e., a walled garden), was borrowed from Semitic: Akkadian pardesu _

 * So the Semitic word (probably from Akkadian or one of its cousins) was borrowed into Persian, not that the Persian word was borrowed into Akkadian. Ben (talk) 02:23, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

The current version is after my edit, prior version said it made its way to Akkadian from Persian, I just informed you of the edit to make sure I was not missing something. Lishanashanta (talk) 06:05, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Mountairy/Mount Airy
Kindly pay attention. The statement is cited, and the citation gives Mountairy in its "Variant Names" section. Nyttend (talk) 01:45, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

SXSW2019 Meetup
Hi! You're listed as someone who wants to be notified of meetups in Austin. I'm coming to town for SXSW so I'm calling a meetup this weekend. See Meetup/SXSW2019. Hope to see you there! --ESP (talk) 14:55, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

title: User talk:Benwbrum


text:
World Federation of Trade Unions

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation of Trade Unions as a single structure for trade unions world-wide, following the World Trade Union Conference in London, United Kingdom.

With the emergence of the Cold War in the late 1940s, the WFTU splintered, with most trade unions from the Western-aligned countries leaving and creating the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in 1949. Throughout the Cold War, membership of the WFTU was made up predominantly of trade unions from the Soviet-aligned and non-aligned countries. However, there were notable exceptions to this, such as the Yugoslav and Chinese unions, which departed following the Tito-Stalin and Sino-Soviet splits, respectively, or the French CGT and Italian CGIL unions, who were members. With the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the WFTU lost the largest portion of its membership and financial support. Since the start of the 2000s, the organization shifted headquarters to Athens and recruited new members, claiming to have grown from representing 48 million workers in 2005 to 105 million in 2022.

Rise
Its mission was to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations. After a number of Western trade unions left it in 1949, as a result of disputes over support for the Marshall Plan, to form the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the WFTU was made up primarily of unions affiliated with or allegedly sympathetic to communist parties. In the context of the Cold War, the WFTU was often portrayed in the West as a Soviet front organization. A number of those unions, including those from Yugoslavia and China, left later when their governments had ideological differences with the Soviet Union.

In 1952, the WFTU organised a speaking tour of the Caribbean for communist activists Billy Strachan and Ferdinand Smith.

Decline
The WFTU declined as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialist governments in Eastern Europe, in particular in Europe, with many of its former constituent unions joining the ICFTU. That fall seems to have come to an end since the congress in Havana in 2005 where a new leadership was elected with Georges Mavrikos, a Greek union activist from PAME, leading member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), at its head.

In January 2006 it moved headquarters from Prague, Czech Republic to Athens, Greece and reinvigorated its activity by putting focus on organizing regional federations of unions in the Third World, by organizing campaigns against imperialism, racism, poverty, environmental degradation and exploitation of workers under capitalism and in defense of full employment, social security, health protection, and trade union rights. The WFTU devotes much of its energy to organizing conferences, issuing statements and producing educational materials and courses for trade union leaders.

In recent years, the WFTU has successfully managed to recruit several trade unions of importance in Europe, amongst which the Rail Maritime Trade Union in Great Britain, the Unione Sindicale di Base in Italy. In France, the CGT National Federation of Agri-Food and Forestry has maintained its affiliation with the WFTU. The CGT National Federation of Chemical Industries sent delegates to the last congress in Athens in 2011. In 2013, two local CGT railway workers branches have taken steps to become affiliates with the WFTU.

The different offices of the WFTU across the different continents organize regular exchanges and militant visits of trade union activists from an affiliate to another in order to further discussions, foster internationalist ties, establish an international activity of its affiliates around shared objectives and campaigns, against common adversaries.

In Africa, unions of major importance such as COSATU in South Africa have affiliated with the WFTU.

As part of its efforts to advance its international agenda, the WFTU develops working partnerships with national and industrial trade unions worldwide as well as with a number of international and regional trade union organizations including the Organization of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU), the Permanent Congress of Trade Union Unity of Latin America (CPUSTAL), and the General Confederation of Trade Unions of Commonwealth of Independent States.

The WFTU holds consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, the ILO, UNESCO, FAO, and other UN agencies. It maintains permanent missions in New York, Geneva, and Rome.

National Affiliates
Example of National affiliates of the WFTU include:

 * General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (🇰🇵 North Korea)
 * All-Workers Militant Front (🇬🇷 Greece)
 * Unione Sindacale di Base (🇮🇹 Italy)
 * Bangladesh Trade Union Centre (🇧🇩 Bangladesh)
 * Vietnam General Confederation of Labour ( Vietnam)
 * Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (🇹🇷 Turkey)
 * National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (🇬🇧 United Kingdom)
 * Congress of South African Trade Unions (🇿🇦 South Africa)
 * Bolivian Workers' Center (🇧🇴 Bolivia)
 * Workers' Central Union of Cuba (🇨🇺 Cuba)
 * General Union of Palestinian Workers (GUPW) ( Palestine)
 * Confederación General de Trabajadores del Perú (🇵🇪 Peru)
 * General Federation of Trade Unions ( Syria)
 * All India Trade Union Congress (🇮🇳 India)
 * Centre of Indian Trade Unions (🇮🇳 India)
 * All India Central Council of Trade Unions (🇮🇳 India)
 * Intersindical-CSC (🇪🇸 Spain)
 * Coordinadora Obrera Sindical (🇪🇸 Spain)
 * Coordinadora Sindical de Clase (🇪🇸 Spain)
 * Frente Sindical Obrero de Canarias (🇪🇸 Spain)
 * Confederation Intersindical Galega (🇪🇸 Spain)
 * Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (🇪🇸 Spain)
 * Workers' House (🇮🇷 Iran)
 * Unidade Classista (🇧🇷 Brazil)
 * Central dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras do Brasil (🇧🇷 Brazil)
 * United Trade Unions of Serbia "Sloga" (🇷🇸 Serbia)
 * All-China Federation of Trade Unions (🇨🇳 China)
 * Labor United Educational League (LUEL) (🇺🇸 USA)
 * Union of Trade Unions of Monaco (🇲🇨 Monaco)
 * General Confederation of Labour (🇫🇷 France)
 * National Federation of Agri-Food and Forestry
 * National Federation of Chemical Industries
 * Union of Trade Unions of Russia (🇷🇺 Russia)
 * Congress of Indonesia Unions Alliance (Konfederasi KASBI). (🇮🇩 Indonesia)
 * Pancyprian Federation of Labour (🇨🇾 Cyprus)

Trade Union Internationals
During the late 1940s, the WFTU unsuccessfully tried to reach an agreement with already existing international trade secretariats. When the Union split in 1949 they were left without an organization at the level of specific industries, leading to the creation of the Trade Union International (TUI) system.

The TUI system has gone through a number of transformations in its over 60 years of existence. The following Trade Unions Internationals are constituted within the WFTU:
 * World Federation of Teachers Unions – known by its French acronym FISE, this is the earliest affiliated union, founded in 1946. It maintained a degree of independence from the WFTU not exercised by the other TUIs.
 * In 1949, the 2nd World Congress decided to create a series of sectoral unions, after their negotiations with already existing international trade secretariats failed. At first these were known as Trade Departments or International Federations, but they adopted the appellation "Trade Union Internationals" by the mid-1950s. The original TUIs formed in 1949 and 1950 were:
 * The WFTU functioned during the Cold War largely as a unitary organization, bringing together unions from the Communist bloc and Western unions.
 * Trade Union International of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (also known as the TUI of Agricultural, Forestry and Plantation Workers)
 * Trade Unions International of Building, Wood, Building Materials and Industries
 * International Union of Trade Unions of Postal, Telephone and Telegraph Workers (also known as the TUI of Postal, Telegraph, Telephone and Radio Workers)
 * Trade Union International of Chemical and Allied Workers
 * Trade Unions International of Miners
 * Trade Union International of Food, Tobacco, Hotel and Allied Industries Workers (also known as the TUI of Food, Tobacco and Catering Workers or the TUI of Food, Tobacco and Beverage Industries, and Hotel, Cafe and Restaurant Workers)
 * Trade Union International of Metal and Engineering Workers (also known as the TUI of Workers in the Metal Industry)
 * Trade Union International of Textile and Clothing Workers
 * Trade Union International of Leather, Shoe, Fur and Leather Products
 * Trade Unions International of Seamen and Dockers
 * Trade Unions International of Land and Air Transport Workers

Over time, some of these original eleven would expand their bases, change their names or merge:
 * In 1953, the TUIs of Seamen and Dockers and Land and Air Transport Workers merged to form the Trade Unions International of Transport, Port and Fishery Workers. By 1985, this union had adopted its present name, Trade Unions International of Transport Workers.
 * In 1954 the TUI of Chemical and Allied Workers expanded its sectoral base and became the Trade Unions International of Chemical, Oil and Allied Workers.
 * In 1955 the International Union of Trade Unions of Postal, Telephone and Telegraph Workers expanded its scope to all public employees and became the Trade Unions International of Public and Allied Employees.
 * In 1958 the TUIs of Leather, Shoe, Fur and Leather Products and of Textile and Clothing Workers merged to form the Trade Union International of Textile, Leather and Fur Workers Unions.
 * In 1983 the TUI of Miners expanded its scope and became the Trade Unions International of Miners and Energy Workers. In 1986 it became the Trade Unions International of Energy Workers before ceasing activities.

Other than the initial eleven, two new TUIs were formed during the course of the Cold War:
 * Trade Union International of Workers in Commerce formed in 1959
 * Standing Committee of Trade Unions in the Graphic Industry formed in 1961, allied with, but not formally affiliated to the WFTU.

Post-Cold War developments
After the dissolution of the Eastern bloc, the Trade Unions International of Energy Workers and the Trade Union International of Metal and Engineering Workers temporarily suspended operations. In 1998 a conference was held in Havana which merged these two organizations and the Trade Union International of Chemical, Oil and Allied Workers in a new group, Trade Union International of Energy, Metal, Chemical, Oil and Allied Industries. This organization was reorganized again as the Trade Unions International of Energy Workers in 2007. This left the metal workers an opportunity create a new TUI the next year, Trade Union International of Workers in the Mining, the Metallurgy and the Metal Industries.

In 1997 the Trade Union International of Agroalimentary, Food, Commerce, Textile & Allied Industries was formed by the merger of the Trade Union International of Agricultural, Forestry and Plantation Workers, Trade Union International of Food, Tobacco, Hotel and Allied Industries Workers, Trade Union International of Workers in Commerce, Trade Union International of Textile, Leather and Fur Workers Unions.

The Trade Union International of Workers in Tourism and Hotels was founded in 2009, the Trade Union International of Banks, Insurance and Financial Unions Employees in 2011 and the Trade Union International of Pensioners and Retired Persons in 2014. In 2020, a new Trade Union International of Textile-Garment-Leather was founded.

General Secretaries

 * 1945: Louis Saillant (🇫🇷 France)
 * 1969: Pierre Gensous (🇫🇷 France)
 * 1978: Enrique Pastorino (🇺🇾 Uruguay)
 * 1982: Ibrahim Zakaria (🇸🇩 Sudan)
 * 1990: Alexander Zharikov (🇷🇺 Russia)
 * 2005: George Mavrikos (🇬🇷 Greece)
 * 2022: Pambis Kyritsis (🇨🇾 Cyprus)

Presidents

 * 1945: Walter Citrine (🇬🇧 United Kingdom)
 * 1946: Arthur Deakin (🇬🇧 United Kingdom)
 * 1949: Giuseppe Di Vittorio (🇮🇹 Italy)
 * 1959: Agostino Novella (🇮🇹 Italy)
 * 1961: Renato Bitossi (🇮🇹 Italy)
 * 1969: Enrique Pastorino (🇺🇾 Uruguay)
 * 1975: Sándor Gáspár (🇭🇺 Hungary)
 * 1989: Indrajit Gupta (🇮🇳 India)
 * 1990: Ibrahim Zakaria (🇸🇩 Sudan)
 * 1994: Antonio Neto (🇧🇷 Brazil)
 * 2000: K. L. Mahendra (🇮🇳 India)
 * 2005: Shaban Assouz ( Syria)
 * 2016: Mzwandile Makwayiba (🇿🇦 South Africa)

title: World Federation of Trade Unions