In 1912, Dr. Isaac Adler noted a significant increase in lung malignancies among male patients and suggested that cigarettes, among other factors, might be the cause of the increase. In 1950, JAMA published results of the first major study by Dr. Morton Levin definitively linking smoking to lung cancer.

Until 1905, tobacco had been included in the US Pharmacopeia, which was the official U.S. government listing of drugs. To win the vote of tobacco state legislators for the landmark 1906 Federal Pure Food and Drugs Act, tobacco was delisted from the US Pharmacopeia.

Discount cigarettes sold for as little as 10 cents a pack. During the Depression, some premium brands cost 14 cents a pack, or two for 27 cents. In 1934, an A&P advertisement listed cigarette prices for four brands at two packs for 25 cents or a carton of 10 for $1.20.

The average cost of a pack of cigarettes in New York City in 2010 was $11.34. That includes $6.86 in local, state, and federal taxes.

By 1922, 15 states had banned the sale, manufacture, possession, advertising, and/or use of cigarettes. Only five years later, in 1927, Kansas became the last state to repeal its ban.

Cigarette manufacturers designed ad campaigns featuring doctors to counter some growing anxiety about the health risks of smoking. Cigarette smoking was still largely taboo for women around the time of World War I, but the number of men smoking increased significantly.

In 1933, Liggett & Myers became the first tobacco company to buy advertising in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Cigarette ads appeared in its pages over the next 20 years, many of them touting the health benefits of their brands. Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds were the last two cigarette manufacturers to run ads in JAMA, in 1953. By then, several studies had linked smoking to the growing epidemic of lung cancer in men.

In 1955, the Federal Trade Commission put in place new ad guidelines to eliminate unsubstantiated health claims by cigarette manufacturers. Increased production of filter cigarettes in the 1950s also spurred advertising campaigns touting the health benefits of different brands, such as reducing smoker's cough.

On Jan. 11, 1964, Surgeon General Luther L. Terry released the report “Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General.” A national committee aided by more than 150 consultants concluded that cigarette smoking was responsible for a 70% increase in the mortality rate of smokers over nonsmokers.

The U.S. government provided cigarettes in soldiers' daily rations starting in 1918. The U.S. Army stopped supplying them in ration packs in 1975. The percentage of active duty military that smoked was highest during the Korean and Vietnam wars, 75%.

The year after the Surgeon General's first report on smoking, 42% of the U.S. population smoked. That number declined to 21% by 2009, or about 46 million adults.

In 1952, the P. Lorillard Company, the manufacturer of Kent Cigarettes, started marketing its Micronite filter, which the manufacturer’s records show was a blend of 30% asbestos and 70% cotton and acetate.

The Family Prevention and Smoking Control Act, which banned certain flavored cigarettes, went into effect in 2009. It was a result of the FDA’s effort to reduce smoking. The FDA argued that flavored cigarettes induced children to start smoking. It did not include cigars, which are defined as tobacco wrapped in a tobacco leaf. Cigarettes are defined as tobacco wrapped in paper.

The 2009 law that banned certain flavors from cigarettes did not include menthol. An FDA committee concluded in 2011 that eliminating menthol would have a positive effect on public health, but it did not recommend a ban.