In the 16th century, medical doctors thought that tobacco plants could cure diseases. Spanish physician Nicolas Monardes listed 39 ailments that tobacco could cure. Tobacco companies claimed curative properties of smoking tobacco in the 1950s, including that tobacco relaxed the body. These claims were disproved by solid evidence from medical studies during the 1980s, and tobacco is now known to be carcinogenic.
History
Tobacco suitable for smoking comes from a plant native to both North and South America; the first cultivation of that plant is dated to approximately 6000 B.C. American Indians on both continents used tobacco from approximately 1 B.C. in both rituals and medical practice. Visitors to these continents, including Christopher Columbus in 1492, recorded offerings of dried tobacco made by the native peoples met along the route. As regular traffic between the American and European continents expanded, so did the trade in tobacco.
Types
Mixtures of smoking tobacco are used in a variety of cigarettes, pipes and hookahs. Bidis, thin, hand-rolled cigarettes, are imports from Southeast Asia and India that can be recognized by the string ties on the ends. Kreteks, an Indonesian import, combine smoking tobacco with cloves. Pipe and hookah smokers also use a blend of tobacco leaves typically included in commercial cigarette production. A hookah is a pipe that uses water to filter the tobacco smoke.
Features
Commercially produced cigarettes use tobacco that is "shredded or reconstituted tobacco processed with hundreds of chemicals," according to the World Health Organization. Companies add chemicals to ensure that the cigarette continually burns without relighting. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that more than 50 known carcinogens are added during tobacco processing. Cigarettes commonly use a filter, but unfiltered cigarettes are also sold throughout the world. Smoking tobacco is also sold separately for home rolling. Tobacco used for these categories is referred to as smoking tobacco.
Warning
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that more than 443,000 annual deaths are linked to "the adverse effects from cigarette smoking." That number is greater than the combined deaths linked to illegal drug and alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, murders, human immunodeficiency virus and suicides. The health risks to smoking tobacco include two to four times the risk for stroke and 13 times the risk in women for developing lung cancer, according to the CDC. Men face 23 times the risk of developing lung cancer and 12 to 13 times the risk of death from chronic obstructive lung disease, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Expert Insight
Smoking tobacco also contributes to significant harm to people in the general area of the smoke. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that "scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke." Even the smallest amount of exposure to tobacco smoke may impair health.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking
- Office of the Surgeon General: Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke
- Cleveland Clinic: Tobacco Treatment Center
- Boston University Medical Center: History of Tobacco
- World Health Organization: Types of Tobacco Use: Smoking Tobacco
