The UICC takes no responsibility on the information provided on this page. The tobacco companies will inevitably tell you they are selling a simple agricultural product - chopped up tobacco leaves rolled into a paper tube. This is categorically untrue.
Cigarettes are one of the most highly engineered consumer products available.
WHO's pitch is significant. Tobacco control experts say it does not stand to reason that harmful nicotine from cigarettes is available freely while prescriptions are necessary for therapeutic nicotine sold by pharmaceuticals. As cigarette companies diversify, the incongruity increases. Food sold by tobacco companies is regulated but their cigarette brands are not. At one point, in 1890, tobacco was included in the US Pharmacopia but, after intense lobbying of Congress by tobacco manufacturers, it was excluded from the purview of the US Food and Drug Administration, which was created in 1906 with jurisdiction over those products listed in Pharmacopia.