I know it is popular now a days to think there are thousands of chemicals in cigarettes that for some reason are placed there on purpose by the manufacturer.

But for the most part that isn't true. The chemicals that are spoken of are just naturally present in the raw tobacco leaf and also a lot are formed when the tobacco is burnt with air ( forms carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxides and such).

Sodium hydroxide comes from using electrical energy to separate the sodium chloride molecule (table salt) into separate sodium and chlorine ions. Then the sodium ion is allowed to react with water and forms the new molecule NaOH.

For that to happen naturally in the tobacco leaf seems pretty slim. Also, I can't see anything the manufacturer could possibly gain by putting it in there.

Now there is a use of sodium hydroxide for some leaf farmers, but it isn' for tobacco, it is for the coca leaf. Sodium hydroxide is used to dissolve the cellulose from the leaf to free up the cocaine which is then acified to become the cocaine hydrochloride along with further processing to get the famous white "flour".

But with cigarettes and greedy corporations... They aren't going to put anything in cigarettes that doesn't give them a profit back or anything extra to be sued over.