The United States is the fourth-largest producer of tobacco in the world, even though tobacco production has decreased from 180,000 tobacco farms in the 1980s to 10,000 in 2012. North Carolina and Kentucky were responsible for over 70 percent of the 533 million pounds of tobacco harvested in the U.S. in 2018.

Prices of tobacco products have increased over the years and have shown to be the most effective way to reduce tobacco consumption. Increasing the price of tobacco products by 10 percent can reduce cigarette consumption by three to five percent. The affordability of tobacco products impacts users' desire to consume them, and higher prices are likely to discourage both teens and young adults from purchasing and using them.

Smoking and Health

The relationship between smoking tobacco products and the effects on health became a focus of the government in the early 1950s. Research began to show statistical links between smoking and lung cancer, while the tobacco industry began to realize there were cancer-causing carcinogens in smoke. A decade later, in the 1960s, the addictiveness of nicotine became a talking point. It didn't take long to realize that nicotine addiction was the cause of people becoming habitual smokers. 

The Popularity of Tobacco

Like any industry, the tobacco industry has revised cigarette products over the years. Modern tobacco cigarettes are full of chemical compounds that increase addictiveness, including ammonia, as well as sugars, flavors, menthols, and bronchodilators that make inhalation easier and more enjoyable. Also, modern farming practices aren't the same as farming practices in the 20th century.

The ability to genetically engineer tobacco crops has led to an increase in the amount of nicotine contained in tobacco plants. This ability, in combination with an updated cigarette design, delivers 14.5 percent more nicotine to the body. Although smoking rates have decreased over the past 50 years, the risk of dying from smoking-related illness has risen because of the increased nicotine content and design changes.

Throughout the human history of manufacturing, there have been four disruptive periods of change. The first three Industrial Revolutions, starting in the late 18th century, saw the progression of mechanized manufacturing using steam and water power, mass production due to the use of electricity and the assembly line, and the introduction of computers and automation. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, began in 2011 as we began to digitize production and add value to services.

The most basic breakdown of industry 4.0 is the combining of cyber and physical systems by using automation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and vertical and horizontal integration. Triple-A Radio explains that there are four stages in the evolution of Industry 4.0. Visibility provides insights about the manufacturing floor, the analysis looks at why something is happening, simulations provide system-performance feedback, and autonomous operation divorces production from human drivers. Driving greater productivity by using new technologies is the best way for 21st-century manufacturers to remain competitive while meeting the demands of a global economy. 

Marketing Trends and Youth

Big Tobacco companies maintain that their marketing tactics aren't geared towards youth, and yet the ability to sell to teenagers is overwhelming. Loophole marketing tactics once showed cigarette use as a right of passage toward adulthood, and a bold form of self-expression, confidence, and non-conformity. Tobacco cigarettes were considered an adult identity that made men more masculine and women more feminine.

Over the years, Big Tobacco has found success advertising in sports magazines, sponsoring motor racing, and launching the two most iconic tobacco consumers—The Marlboro Cowboy, and RJ Reynolds' Old Joe Camel. While these marketing tactics may not have explicitly shown youth smoking or told them to start, they still effectively reached an underaged audience.

Nowadays, the challenge has become the popularity of e-cigarettes. The sleek, innovative design of e-cigarettes that look like flash drives makes them easy to conceal. Thousands of cartridge flavors on the market, social media ads, corporate sponsorships, email marketing, and promotional discounts and coupons targeted at new users are all marketing methods used by tobacco brands.

Many habitual smokers have turned to e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool. Vape cartridges, vape pens, and vape pods have become overwhelmingly popular. Keeping up with the demand for accurate shot size cartridges is best done with a vape cartridge filling machine. CoolJarz produces cartridge fillers that can handle oils of all viscosities without compromising terpenes.

Their stainless steel vape cartridge filler machines all feature foot pedals for automation, heaters for temperature control, and precision syringes that fill 1ml shots into each reservoir or capsule. All of the CoolJarz cartridge filling machines and accessories are made from BPA-free, recycled materials that are child-resistant. Automation of processes is the most effective way to keep up with market demands in the 21st century.

Despite what has been learned about the health hazards of tobacco use, the tobacco industry remains one of the strongest in the world. The design of tobacco products has changed over the years, as well as some of the methods behind marketing them. Like many industries in the 21st century, new technologies and innovations allow tobacco brands to remain competitive in a global economy while meeting consumer demand with value-added products.