Cigarettes In The Late Nineteenth Century

According to “The Action of Smoking and Health,” every six seconds someone loses their life as a result of a tobacco related disease. It’s hard to realize how damaging cigarette smoking’s effect can be until you experience it first hand. It is almost certain that every one knows someone who is currently a smoker or was a smoker at some point in their life. For years smoking was the seen as the “cool” thing to do, it was how to “fit in.” There was no real emphasis placed on the dangers of this particular habit, and as a result, it became a world wide trend. In the past, technology and medicine were not nearly advanced enough to be able to determine just how harmful tobacco usage is. However, as we have made medical and

The smoking habit is the principal cause of illness, disability and death around the world. More than five million of people in the world die due to smoking habit every year. If we don’t take care of this in 2030 the amount will be ten million. Seven million of these deaths would be in poor countries.

Tobacco has been around in the world for over 2.5 million years. It was not until a few hundred years ago when the tobacco industry decided to put these crops into use and conjure up tobacco products for the community. A popular tobacco product in society is cigarettes, as they are cheap and simple to use. As long as one is over eighteen, acquiring cigarettes is a straightforward process for a reasonable price, albeit the sin tax. It was not until recently when cigarettes became widely controversial due to the plant containing nicotine, an addictive drug to the body. Aside from containing nicotine and other hazardous chemicals to the body, cigarettes also cause a whole host of health implications

Although it remains a large portion of the U.S’ economy, tobacco smoking can lead to a variety of diseases and disorders that affect the user. The effects of smoking tobacco not only affect the user but surrounding people as well: permanently destroying their lungs and children, increasing the chances of diseases and of cancer.

For many generations, tobacco had been used in healing ceremonies and as offerings to the spirits. In 1492, there are stories of Native Americans giving gifts of tobacco to Christopher Columbus and of him throwing it away as weeds. Some of his men did take up smoking and spread the habit around the world. Following the arrival of Europeans tobacco became very popular to trade and gave the Native Americans a form of currency.

Many drugs are used, misused, and abused in American society today. Some of these carry stigma in the general population, forcing users into an underground drug subculture. Others are accepted and almost promoted under certain circumstances. Tobacco is one of those drugs. Tobacco will be discussed in the context of cigarette smoking. This is not to undermine the existence or danger of other forms of tobacco, but instead to have an exhaustive discussion of cigarette smoking and its societal impact. Cigarettes are a means of inhaling tobacco, where it enters the lungs and is absorbed through the blood vessels, traveling to the heart, from which it is finally pumped to the brain (Hogan, Gabrielsen, Luna, and Grothaus 2003:76). Cigarettes are detrimental to society because they not only affect the user who chooses to smoke; they impact people around them through second-hand and residual smoke. The damage done by cigarettes is not impossible to address. Successful prevention measures are already in place, but this paper intends to suggest other more direct measures, especially related to statutory regulations.

Tobacco has been used since before our nation was colonized. During the seventeenth century, many British settlers earned their living in America from

colonists took an interest in the tobacco and smoked it themselves but found it to be bitter tasting and weak. Looking to improve the taste of this Native American plant they started to mix it with a sweet tobacco that they had imported. While the Native Americans used tobacco for religious and ritual reasons the colonists in Virginia smoked pipes as a mark of a gentleman (Cordry 3). But the colonists did not keep this plant to themselves, Christopher Columbus introduced tobacco to Europe in the 1490’s, and soon after Jean Nicot introduce tobacco to France, who then nicotine was named after in 1556. Spain, Portugal, and England soon caught on to this trend and began using tobacco in 1565 (Connolly 13). As tobacco made its global rise to fame, many doctors began to use it as a medication for things such as “griefs” of the stomach, snakebites, toothaches, joint pain, and a dry scalp. William Byrd was one man in particular who tried to promote general wellness to the public, convincing people to follow in his example by hanging tobacco leaves next to their

Smoking is injurious to health and a preventable cause of premature death. In the U.S.; it is estimated that one in each five adults smoke currently and about 480,000 people die prematurely from diseases caused by smoking or secondhand smoke exposure. (CDC tobacco use). The economic burden of tobacco use is also significant. About $100 billion per year is spent in medical expenses and another $100 billion per year in lost productivity. There is no safe level of smoking

Smoking has resulted in over 20 million deaths since 1964. About 443,000 people die every year from smoking related illnesses and for every dead person, there are 20 people who grapple with one or more tobacco-related illnesses. The United States loses 193 billion USD annually in medical expenses and lost productivity. 17% of high school seniors are smokers, and one fifth of adult Americans continue to smoke. This paper aims to highlight the specific actions that have been taken by public health officials in the past and the path of action projected for the next decade.

There is an overwhelming epidemic in the United States that some take for granted, with every puff of a cigarette or chew a person puts in their body they are condemning themselves slowly, but surely. The relation between tobacco use and cancer related diseases has been not only been proven by science, but there are even countless warning labels on the actual products with the hope of changing the individual’s mind when and before consuming the product. People pick up these dirty habits in the early stages of their lives, blaming stress or peer pressure as its influence. Regardless if an individual chooses to smoke or use smokeless tobacco products, the effects of both products are both detrimental to one’s health and longevity.

Smoking became popular in the late 1800s. People smoked dry tobacco leaves in cigars and pipes. Ojeda states in his article, "Even before science established definitively that tobacco can kill you, people knew it was trouble" (Opposing Viewpoints). They did

Smoking is one of the biggest challenges facing public health. In England, Tobacco is killing almost 80,000 people every year (The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care, 2013). Around 8 million people in England smoke and expose many more to second-hand smoke. By this ways, smoking becomes harmful as well to people around smokers. (UK Department of Health , 2014)

I will explore how smoking affects the body. Not only the effects it has on the body of the smoker but other people around them. I will cite examples of how tobacco can cause or complicate diseases. I will explore the effects of tobacco on the unborn. I will show how tobacco can be socially unacceptable and ultimately how starting a habit that is very difficult to quit is not worth the effort it will take to do so.

The first known theory that tobacco use might have a harmful effect on the user dates to the early 1600s when an anonymous English author made a conclusion that illnesses seen in Chimney Sweepers, were caused by the soot in the chimneys and that smoking tobacco may have a similar effect. However, it isn’t until the early 1900s do we begin to see medical reports linking smoking and certain illnesses such as lung cancer. Although this newly found medical report began circulating, they did little to stop the general population from smoking. In fact, it is not long after the first medical reports came out, that we see the greatest influx in new smokers in the United States which is the World War II era. Amid one of the deadliest events in all human history, it is easy to see how many people began to smoke. The United States even rationed cigarettes to troops in order to “boost morale”. According to Sable Aradia in