U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for October 24: Cigarettes

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U.S. Census Bureau

Oct 24, 2015, 12:01 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

CIGARETTES

Profile America — Saturday, October 24th. One of the nation's most successful brand names went on sale for the first time this month in 1913 — Camel cigarettes, the first pre-blended, packaged cigarettes. While machine-rolled cigarettes had been around since 1881, Camel was the first brand to become nationally popular. Coincidentally, Camels pioneered the now almost universal 20-cigarette pack. By 1919, with increasing advertising and product availability, cigarettes overtook pipe tobacco in the number of pounds consumed. Shortly after World War II, about 45 percent of Americans smoked. Now, just under 18 percent do so. Cigarette manufacturing remains a big part of the business for the country's 120 tobacco manufacturing establishments. Sales exceed $39 billion annually. Profile America is in its 19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Sources:
1900-1950 Tobacco chronology: http://archive.tobacco.org/resources/history/Tobacco_History20-1.html
Tobacco history: http://healthliteracy.worlded.org/docs/tobacco/Unit1/2history_of.html
Brand history and packaging: http://www.rjrt.com/transforming-tobacco/history/
Recent smoking statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html
Graph of smoking statistics: http://www.gallup.com/poll/28213/latest-gallup-update-shows-cigarette-smoking-near-historical-lows.aspx
Value of tobacco shipments/ NAICS 312230: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ASM_2013_31GS101&prodType=table
Tobacco manufacturing establishments/NAICS 312230: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ECN_2012_US_31I1&prodType=table

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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