Gourt > Health > Specific Substances > Tobacco > Effects > By Source of Exposure > Cigarette Smoking
Tobacco smoking is the act of burning the dried leaves of the tobacco plant and inhaling the resulting smoke. The practice, using both pipes and cigars, was common to many Native American cultures and was introduced to the rest of the world by sailors following European exploration of the Americas. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a stimulant which temporarily improves alertness and memory, but also forms a strong physical and psychological chemical dependence (addiction). Medical research has also found that smoking is a major contributing factor towards many health problems, particularly lung cancer, emphysema, and cardiovascular disease. Many countries regulate or restrict tobacco sales and advertising, and many municipalities now ban smoking in a variety of public venues due to health impacts on non-smokers of breathing second-hand smoke.
History
Tobacco smoking, using both pipes and cigars, was common to many Native American cultures of the Americas. It is depicted in the art of the Classic-era Maya civilization about 1,500 years ago. The Mayans smoked tobacco and also mixed it with lime and chewed it in a snuff-like substance. Among the Mayans tobacco was used as an all-purpose medicine, and was widely believed to have magical powers, being used in divinations and talismans. It was also burned as a sacrifice to the gods; a tobacco gourd was worn as a badge by midwives.
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus was given "certain dry leaves" by the Arawaks, but threw them away. Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, who had erroneously been searching for the Khan of Cathay in Cuba, were the first Europeans to observe smoking, and Jerez also became the first recorded smoker outside the Americas. His neighbours in Spain were so frightened by the smoke billowing from his mouth and nostrils that they alerted the Spanish Inquisition, and Jerez was imprisoned for seven years. By the time he was released, smoking had become fashionable in Spain. In 1497 Ramon Pane who had been on the second voyage of Columbus describes the native use of tobacco in De Insularium Ribitus. Columbus in 1498 named the island of Tobago after the native tobacco pipe. Throughout the 16th century, the habit of smoking spread mainly among sailors. It was introduced to England by the crew of Sir John Hawkins in the 1560s. In 1559, Francisco Hernandez de Toledo introduced the plant to the court of Philippe II where it was at first only grown as an ornamental plant. Tobacco made an impact on European society only from the 1580s; in England, some returning Virginia colonists in 1586 caused a sensation by smoking tobacco from pipes. The tobacco plant in Elizabethan England was known as sotweed. The habit caught on, and in 1604, James I wrote his A Counterblaste to Tobacco, and multiplied import tax on tobacco by a factor of 40. Similarly, an imperial edict in 1610 prohibited the use and cultivation of tobacco in China, where, from 1638, smokers could be punished by decapitation. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), smoking Landsknechts spread tobacco use among the rural population of the European continent: records of smoking in Sweden date to 1630 and in Austria to 1650. In 1642, Urban VIII issued a papal bull against smoking in churches. In 1657, smoking was prohibited in Switzerland.
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1997 Cigarette Nicotine Disclosure Report - Massachusetts Department of Public Health developed a testing method which better simulates smoking; nicotine deliveries are reported from these tests; there are no significant differences in the total nicotine content of regular, light or ultra-light cigarettes.
A Safer Cigarette? Prove It, Say Critics - JAMA article provides scientific evaluation of claims R.J. Reynold is making about its new tobacco product.
ABC's Memorandum In Support of Summary Judgement - ABC's court response contains much information on cigarette design and nicotine manipulation.
Addiction and Cigarettes as Nicotine Delivery Devices - Chapter from The Cigarette Papers covers what has been learned from industry secret documents regarding what the industry knew about nicotine and when it knew it.
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Cigarette Filters May Have Added to Health Risk - New study says Philip Morris knew, but didn't fix the problem.
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Designing a Cigarette for the First Time Smoker - Article in scientific journal examines how R. J. Reynolds designed a cigarette to appeal to new customers.
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Free-basing Nicotine: State of the Art - 1973 R. J. Reynolds discovery of why Philip Morris's Marlboro was selling so well: it was being engineered with ammonia to increase the nicoctine kick.
FTC Cigarette Testing - 1997 RFC from the FTC. FTC tar and nicotine numbers are inaccurate, for reasons they outline. The smoker actually inhales substantially more tar and nicotine than the numbers state.
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Manufacturing Tobacco - Science site explains how the tobacco industry controls nicotine levels and uses ammonia to engineer the product for addiction.
Measurements of Eclipse - Research measurement finds that Eclipse exposes the user to significant quantities of nicotine and carbon monoxide, just like cigarettes.
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Philip Morris Australia Additives - Additives listed by brand for cigarettes made by Philip Morris, Imperial, and BAT in Australia.
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Philip Morris Employee Says Company Thwarted Attempts to Make Safer Cigarettes - CourtTV and AP reporting on testimony of former Philip Morris employee on the tobacco company's practice of ending research on safer cigarettes.
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Prying Open the Door to the Tobacco Industry's Secrets About Nicotine - Article in medical journal surveys industry documents produced in litigation, and finds the tobacco industry knew for decades that nicotine is an addictive drug, and knew ways to design cigarettes to make them more addictive.
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