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Smoking Hurts
Smokers and non smokers alike can find it tough to get to the bottom of issues surrounding tobacco and the habit of smoking, fortunately history can teach us a lot about such issues. Smoking has had a dramatic impact on individuals, communities and cultures, to the point that analysis of its impacts can be almost impossible; this is why we must try to learn from history. The unhealthy habit has become more controversial than ever in recent years, as concise and unchallenged medical reports have clearly showed links with smoking and a number of deadly diseases. So lets take a look back through history, and see if we can learn anything which might help us understand the current situation.
The bizarre story of smoking begins some eight thousand years ago – though no scientist would dare claim an exact date. This is when, at a guess, tobacco plants began growing in their addictive nicotine form. Shortly after this, native Central American Mayan civilization began using tobacco during rituals by both chewing and burning the plants leaves. This use was obviously popular with some, as a form of smoking became the norm for many American civilizations.
These tribal smoking habits, with use in ritual and personal instances, continued uninterrupted for roughly three thousand years; long enough for explorers from Great Britain and Spain to discover the Mayans and learn of their fascination with the tobacco plant. A Spanish explorer, Rodriguez De Jerez, is the most likely candidate for first European to experience smoking. Actually, De Jerez liked smoking so much that he carried tobacco back to Spain only to be arrested by Spanish authorities when he tried to smoke in the street.
Rodriguez’s luck aside, once tobacco found its way to Europe it spread (relatively speaking!) like wildfire throughout the European nations. Sir John Hawkins and Sir Frances Drake of Britain were the two most likely candidates for shipping tobacco back to Europe in its early days. Richard Grenville, cousin of Sir Walter Raleigh – and Raleigh himself – were likely responsible for popularising the drug in high society, making smoking the norm for royalty, the British aristocracy, and anyone with aspirations to such station.
The first substantial challenge to tobaccos spread throughout western society was a King James I decree, essentially outlawing smoking in pubs. At the time, James described tobacco as “an invention of Satan,” strong words considering how he later nationalized the production of smoking products and reduced taxes to producers and importers. Indeed, tobacco consumption grew exponentially to make many people very rich over the next five hundred years.
Tobacco and smoking remained a relatively expensive pass time in Europe, primarily limited by the slow pace and expense of importing such bulky products. This meant that uptake with the lower and middle classes remained slim, that is until cigarettes were invented. Researchers generally agree that Egyptian soldiers are the most likely inventors (and prefectures) of the paper rolled cigarette having, as they did by this point, a relatively good home grown supply of tobacco. Once again tobacco use went from strength to strength as production and importing costs plummeted and cultural demand grew. Finally, in 1950 what may one day be recognized as the death toll for tobacco was sounded when the British Medical Journal published a paper drawing links between lung cancer and smoking. US Surgeon General Luther Terry would later announce an unequivocal link between the drug and cancer.
Recent years have been a dramatic battle between regulators, producers, and smokers. The arguments come thick and fast and, although it’s now fully accepted by all parties that smoking can cause serious health issues, how to deal with the ‘epidemic’ of smoking related deaths and future regulation of tobacco based products are in question. The UK has banned smoking in public places once again, but shows no signs of a total ban. US health officials are fighting hard for clearer labelling explaining the consequences of smoking to potential buyers, and other countries peruse the issue in their own way.
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