Smoking in culture

      Smoking has been accepted into culture, in various art forms, and has developed many distinct, and often conflicting or mutually exclusive, meanings depending on time, place and the practitioners of smoking. Pipe smoking, until recently one of the most common forms of smoking, is today often associated with solemn contemplation, old age and is often considered quaint and archaic. Cigarette smoking, which did not begin to become widespread until the late 19th century, has more associations of modernity and the faster pace of the industrialized world. Cigars have been, and still are, associated with masculinity, power and is an iconic image associated with the stereotypical capitalist. Smoking in public has for a long time been something reserved for men and when done by women has been associated with promiscuity. In Japan during the Edo period, prostitutes and their clients would often approach one another under the guise of offering a smoke and the same was true for 19th century Europe.
                                                                                   Art

An Apothecary Smoking in an Interior by Adriaen van Ostade, oil on panel, 1646.

     The earliest depictions of smoking can be found on Classical Mayan pottery from around the 9th century. The art was primarily religious in nature and depicted deities or rulers smoking early forms of cigarettes.Soon after smoking was introduced outside of the Americas it began appearing in painting in Europe and Asia. The painters of the Dutch Golden Age were among the first to paint portraits of people smoking and still lifes of pipes and tobacco. For southern European painters of the 17th century, a pipe was much too modern to include in the preferred motifs inspired by mythology from Greek and Roman antiquity. At first smoking was considered lowly and was associated with peasants.Many early paintings were of scenes set in taverns or brothels. Later, as the Dutch Republic rose to considerable power and wealth, smoking became more common amongst the affluent and portraits of elegant gentlemen tastefully raising a pipe appeared. Smoking represented pleasure, transience and the briefness of earthly life as it, quite literally, went up in smoke. Smoking was also associated with representations of both the sense of smell and that of taste.

      In the 18th century smoking became far more sparse in painting as the elegant practice of taking snuff became popular. Smoking a pipe was again relegated to portraits of lowly commoners and country folk and the refined sniffing of shredded tobacco followed by sneezing was rare in art. When smoking appeared it was often in the exotic portraits influenced by Orientalism. Many proponents of post-colonial theory controversially believe this portrayal was a means of projecting an image of European superiority over its colonies and a perception of the male dominance of a feminized Orient.[citation needed] They believe the theme of the exotic and alien “Other” escalated in the 19th century, fueled by the rise in popularity of ethnology during the Enlightenment.

Skull with a Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh, oil on canvas, 1885.

In the 19th century smoking was common as a symbol of simple pleasures; the pipe smoking “noble savage”, solemn contemplation by Classical Roman ruins, scenes of an artists becoming one with nature while slowly toking a pipe. The newly empowered middle class also found a new dimension of smoking as a harmless pleasure enjoyed in smoking saloons and libraries. Smoking a cigarette or a cigar would also become associated with the bohemian, someone who shunned the conservative middle class values and displayed his contempts for conservatism. But this was a pleasure that was to be confined to a male world; women smokers were associated with prostitution and was not considered an activity in which proper ladies should involve themselves. It was not until the turn of the century that smoking women would appear in paintings and photos, giving a chic and charming impression. Impressionists like Vincent van Gogh, who was a pipe smoker himself, would also begin to associate smoking with gloom and fin-du-siècle fatalism.

     While the symbolism of the cigarette, pipe and cigar respectively were consolidated in the late 19th century, it was not until the 20th century that artists began to use it fully; a pipe would stand for thoughtfulness and calm; the cigarette symbolized modernity, strength and youth, but also nervous anxiety; the cigar was a sign of authority, wealth and power. The decades following World War II, during the apex of smoking when the practice had still not come under fire by the growing anti-smoking movement, a cigarette casually tucked between the lips represented the young rebel, epitomized in actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean or mainstays of advertising like the Marlboro Man. It was not until the 1970s when the negative aspects of smoking began to appear; the unhealthy lower-class loser, reeking of cigarette smoke and lack of motivation and drive, especially in art inspired or commissioned by anti-smoking campaigns.

                                                                                  Film

Film star and iconic smoker Humphrey Bogart.

          Ever since the era of silent films, smoking has had a major part in film symbolism. In the hard boiled film noir crime thrillers, cigarette smoke often frames characters and is frequently used to add an aura of mystique or even nihilism. One of the forerunners of this symbolism can be seen in Fritz Lang’s Weimar era Dr Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922 (Dr Mabuse, the Gambler), where men mesmerized by card playing smoke cigarettes while gambling. Women smokers in film were also early on associated with a type of sensuous and seductive sexuality, most notably personified by German film star Marlene Dietrich. Similarly, actors like Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn have been closely identified with their smoker persona and some of their most famous portraits and roles have involved a thick mist of cigarette smoke. Hepburn often enhanced the glamour with a cigarette holder, most notably in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Smoking could also be used as a means to subvert censorship, as two cigarettes burning unattended in an ashtray was often used to ‘suggest’ sexual activity.

Since World War II, smoking has gradually become less frequent on screen as the obvious health hazards of smoking have become more widely known. With the anti-smoking movement gaining greater respect and influence, conscious attempts not to show smoking on screen are now undertaken in order to avoid encouraging smoking or giving it positive associations, particularly for family films. Smoking on screen is more common today among characters who are portrayed as anti-social or even criminal.
Literature

       Just as in other types of fiction, smoking has had an important place in literature and smokers are often portrayed as characters with great individuality, or outright eccentrics, something typically personified in one of the most iconic smoking literary figures of all, Sherlock Holmes. Other than being a frequent part of short stories and novels, smoking has spawned endless eulogies, praising its qualities and affirming the author’s identity as a devoted smoker. Especially during the late 19th century and early 20th century, a panoply of books with titles like Tobacco: Its History and associations (1876), Cigarettes in Fact and Fancy (1906) and Pipe and Pouch: The Smokers Own Book of Poetry (1905) were written in the UK and the US. The titles were written by men for other men and contained general tidbits and poetic musings about the love for tobacco and all things related to it, and frequently praised the refined bachelor’s life. The Fragrant Weed: Some of the Good Things Which Have been Said or Sung about Tobacco, published in 1907, contained, among many others, the following lines from the poem A Bachelor’s Views by Tom Hall that were typical of the attitude in many of the books:

The cover of My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke (1896) by J.M. Barrie, otherwise best known for his play Peter Pan.“ So let us drink
To her, – but think
Of him who has to keep her;
And sans a wife
Let’s spend our life
In bachelordom, – it’s cheaper. ”


     These works were all published in an era before the cigarette had become the dominant form of tobacco consumption and pipes, cigars and chewing tobacco were still commonplace. Many of the books were published in novel packaging that would attract the learned smoking gentleman. Pipe and Pouch came in a leather bag resembling a tobacco pouch and Cigarettes in Fact and Fancy (1901) came bound in leather, packaged in an imitation cardboard cigar box. By the late 1920s, the publication of this type of literature largely abated and was only sporadically revived in the later 20th century.
Music

       There have been few examples of tobacco in music in early modern times, though there are occasional signs of influence in pieces such as Johann Sebastian Bach’s Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco-Smoker.However, from the early 20th century and onwards smoking has been closely associated with popular music. Jazz was from early on closely intertwined with the smoking that was practiced in the venues where it was played, such as bars, dance halls, jazz clubs and even brothels. The rise of jazz coincided with the expansion of the modern tobacco industry, and in the United States also contributed to the spread of cannabis. The latter went under names like “tea”, “muggles” and “reefer” in the jazz community and was so influential in the 1920s and 30s that it found its way into songs composed at the time such as Louis Armstrong’s Muggles Larry Adler’s Smoking Reefers and Don Redman’s Chant of The Weed. The popularity of marijuana among jazz musicians remained high until the 1940s and 50s, when it was partially replaced by the use of heroin.

      Another form of modern popular music that has been closely associated with cannabis smoking is reggae, a style of music that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and early 60s. Cannabis, or ganja, is believed to have been introduced to Jamaica in the mid-19th century by Indian immigrant labor and was primarily associated with Indian workers until it was appropriated by the Rastafari movement in the middle of the 20th century. The Rastafari considered cannabis smoking to be a way to come closer to God, or Jah, an association that was greatly popularized by reggae icons such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in the 1960s and 70s.

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Smoking

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     Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. It can also be done as a part of rituals, to induce trances and spiritual enlightenment. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Other smoking tools includes pipes, cigars, hookahs and bongs.

     Smoking is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. Tobacco smoking is today by far the most popular form of smoking and is practiced by over one billion people in the majority of all human societies. Less common drugs for smoking include cannabis and opium. Some of the substances are classified as hard narcotics, like heroin, but the use of these is very limited as they are often not commercially available.

     The history of smoking can be dated to as early as 5000 BC, and has been recorded in many different cultures across the world. Early smoking evolved in association with religious ceremonies; as offerings to deities, in cleansing rituals or to allow shamans and priests to alter their minds for purposes of divination or spiritual enlightenment. After the European exploration and conquest of the Americas, the practice of smoking tobacco quickly spread to the rest of the world. In regions like India and Subsaharan Africa, it merged with existing practices of smoking (mostly of cannabis). In Europe, it introduced a new type of social activity and a form of drug intake which previously had been unknown.

     Perception surrounding smoking has varied over time and from one place to another; holy and sinful, sophisticated and vulgar, a panacea and deadly health hazard. Only relatively recently, and primarily in industrialized Western countries, has smoking come to be viewed in a decidedly negative light. Today medical studies have proven that smoking tobacco is among the leading causes of many diseases such as lung cancer, heart attacks, erectile dysfunction and can also lead to birth defects. The inherent health hazards of smoking have caused many countries to institute high taxes on tobacco products and anti-smoking campaigns are launched every year in an attempt to curb tobacco smoking.

                                        Early uses

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Aztec women are handed flowers and smoking tubes before eating at a banquet, Florentine Codex, 1500

     The history of smoking dates back to as early as 5000 BC in shamanistic rituals. Many ancient civilizations, such as the Babylonians, Indians and Chinese, burnt incense as a part of religious rituals, as did the Israelites and the later Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches. Smoking in the Americas probably had its origins in the incense-burning ceremonies of shamans but was later adopted for pleasure or as a social tool. The smoking of tobacco and various other hallucinogenic drugs was used to achieve trances and to come into contact with the spirit world.

     Substances such as Cannabis, clarified butter (ghee), fish offal, dried snake skins and various pastes molded around incense sticks dates back at least 2000 years. Fumigation (dhupa) and fire offerings (homa) are prescribed in the Ayurveda for medical purposes and have been practiced for at least 3,000 years while smoking, dhumrapana (literally “drinking smoke”), has been practiced for at least 2,000 years. Before modern times these substances have been consumed through pipes, with stems of various lengths or chillums.

     Cannabis smoking was common in the Middle East before the arrival of tobacco, and was early on a common social activity that centered around the type of water pipe called a hookah. Smoking, especially after the introduction of tobacco, was an essential component of Muslim society and culture and became integrated with important traditions such as weddings, funerals and was expressed in architecture, clothing, literature and poetry.

     Cannabis smoking was introduced to Sub-Saharan Africa through Ethiopia and the east African coast by either Indian or Arab traders in the 1200s or earlier and spread on the same trade routes as those that carried coffee, which originated in the highlands of Ethiopia.[5] It was smoked in calabash water pipes with terra cotta smoking bowls, apparently an Ethiopian invention which was later conveyed to eastern, southern and central Africa.

     At the time of the arrivals of Reports from the first European explorers and conquistadors to reach the Americas tell of rituals where native priests smoked themselves into such high degrees of intoxication that it is unlikely that the rituals were limited to just tobacco.
Popularization
For more about the impact and development of tobacco, see History of tobacco.
For more about the commercial development of tobacco, see History of commercial tobacco in the United States.

                  A Persian girl smoking by Muhammad Qasim. Isfahan, 1600s

     In 1612, six years after the settlement of Jamestown, John Rolfe was credited as the first settler to successfully raise tobacco as a cash crop. The demand quickly grew as tobacco, referred to as “golden weed”, reviving the Virginia join stock company from its failed gold expeditions. In order to meet demands from the old world, tobacco was grown in succession, quickly depleting the land. This became a motivator to settle west into the unknown continent, and likewise an expansion of tobacco production. Indentured servitude became the primary labor force up until Bacon’s Rebellion, from which the focus turned to slavery. This trend abated following the American revolution as slavery became regarded as unprofitable. However the practice was revived in 1794 with the invention of the cotton gin.

   A Frenchman named Jean Nicot (from whose name the word nicotine is derived) introduced tobacco to France in 1560. From France tobacco spread to England. The first report of a smoking Englishman is of a sailor in Bristol in 1556, seen “emitting smoke from his nostrils”.Like tea, coffee and opium, tobacco was just one of many intoxicants that was originally used as a form of medicine.Tobacco was introduced around 1600 by French merchants in what today is modern-day Gambia and Senegal. At the same time caravans from Morocco brought tobacco to the areas around Timbuktu and the Portuguese brought the commodity (and the plant) to southern Africa, establishing the popularity of tobacco throughout all of Africa by the 1650s.

     Soon after its introduction to the Old World, tobacco came under frequent criticism from state and religious leaders. Murad IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1623-40 was among the first to attempt a smoking ban by claiming it was a threat to public moral and health. The Chinese emperor Chongzhen issued an edict banning smoking two years before his death and the overthrow of the Ming dynasty. Later, the Manchu of the Qing dynasty, who were originally a tribe of nomadic horse warriors, would proclaim smoking “a more heinous crime than that even of neglecting archery”. In Edo period Japan, some of the earliest tobacco plantations were scorned by the shogunate as being a threat to the military economy by letting valuable farmland go to waste for the use of a recreational drug instead of being used to plant food crops.

         Bonsack’s cigarette rolling machine, as shown on U.S. patent 238,640.

      Religious leaders have often been prominent among those who considered smoking immoral or outright blasphemous. In 1634 the Patriarch of Moscow forbade the sale of tobacco and sentenced men and women who flaunted the ban to have their nostrils slit and their backs whipped until skin came off their backs. The Western church leader Urban VII likewise condemned smoking in a papal bull of 1590. Despite many concerted efforts, restrictions and bans were almost universally ignored. When James I of England, a staunch anti-smoker and the author of a A Counterblaste to Tobacco, tried to curb the new trend by enforcing a whopping 4000% tax increase on tobacco in 1604, it proved a failure, as London had some 7,000 tobacco sellers by the early 1600s. Later, scrupulous rulers would realise the futility of smoking bans and instead turned tobacco trade and cultivation into lucrative government monopolies.

     By the mid-1600s every major civilization had been introduced to tobacco smoking and in many cases had already assimilated it into the native culture, despite the attempts of many rulers to stamp the practice out with harsh penalties or fines. Tobacco, both product and plant, followed the major trade routes to major ports and markets, and then on into the hinterlands. The English language term smoking was coined in the late 1700s, before then the practice was referred to as drinking smoke.

     Tobacco and cannabis were used in Sub-Saharan Africa, much like elsewhere in the world, to confirm social relations, but also created entirely new ones. In what is today Congo, a society called Bena Diemba (“People of Cannabis”) was organized in the late 1800s in Lubuko (“The Land of Friendship”). The Bena Diemba were collectivist pacifists that rejected alcohol and herbal medicines in favor of cannabis.

     The growth remained stable until the American Civil War in 1860s, from which the primary labor force transition from slavery to share cropping. This compounded with a change in demand, lead to the industrialization of tobacco production with the cigarette. James Bonsack, a craftsman, in 1881 produce a machine to speed the production in cigarettes.
Opium
                                                  Main article: Opium


     In the 1800s the practice of smoking opium became common. Previously it had only been eaten, and then primarily for its medical properties. A massive increase in opium smoking in China was more or less directly instigated by the British trade deficit with Qing dynasty China. As a way to amend this problem, the British began exporting large amounts of opium grown in the Indian colonies. The social problems and the large net loss of currency led to several Chinese attempts to stop the imports which eventually culminated in the Opium Wars.

     Opium smoking later spread with Chinese immigrants and spawned many infamous opium dens in China towns around South and Southeast Asia and Europe. In the latter half of the 1800s, opium smoking became popular in the artistic community in Europe, especially Paris in artists’ neighborhoods such as and Montparnasse and Montmartre being virtual “opium capitals”. While opium dens that catered primarily to emigrant Chinese continued to exist in China Towns around the world, the trend among the European artists largely abated after the outbreak of World War I. The consumption of Opium abated in China during the Cultural revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.
                                            Social stigma
For more about the movement in the 1930s and 1940s, see Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany.
     For more about the modern movement, see Anti-smoking movement.
For more about the development of public policy, see Tobacco politics.

     A Nazi anti-smoking ad titled “The chain-smoker” saying “He does not devour it [the cigarette], it devours him”

     With the modernization of cigarette production compounded with the increased life expectancies during the 1920s, adverse health effects began to become more prevalent. In Germany, anti-smoking groups, often associated with anti-liquor groups, first published advocacy against the consumption of tobacco in the journal Der Tabakgegner (The Tobacco Opponent) in 1912 and 1932. In 1929, Fritz Lickint of Dresden, Germany, published a paper containing formal statistical evidence of a lung cancer–tobacco link. During the Great depression Adolf Hitler condemned his earlier smoking habit as a waste of money, and later with stronger assertions. This movement was further strengthened with Nazi reproductive policy as women who smoked were viewed as unsuitable to be wives and mothers in a German family.

     The movement in Nazi Germany did reach across enemy lines during the Second World War, as anti-smoking groups quickly lost popular support. By the end of the Second World War, American cigarette manufactures quickly reentered the German black market. Illegal smuggling of tobacco became prevalent, and leaders of the Nazi anti-smoking campaign were assassinated.  As part of the Marshall Plan, the United States shipped free tobacco to Germany; with 24,000 tons in 1948 and 69,000 tons in 1949. Per capita yearly cigarette consumption in post-war Germany steadily rose from 460 in 1950 to 1,523 in 1963. By the end of the 1900s, anti-smoking campaigns in Germany were unable to exceed the effectiveness of the Nazi-era climax in the years 1939–41 and German tobacco health research was described by Robert N. Proctor as “muted”.

     A lengthy study conducted in order to establish the strong association necessary for legislative action.

     Richard Doll in 1950 published research in the British Medical Journal showing a close link between smoking and lung cancer.Four years later, in 1954 the British Doctors Study, a study of some 40 thousand doctors over 20 years, confirmed the suggestion, based on which the government issued advice that smoking and lung cancer rates were related. In 1964 the United States Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health likewise began suggesting the relationship between smoking and cancer, which confirmed its suggestions 20 years later in the 1980s.

     As scientific evidence mounted in the 1980s, tobacco companies claimed contributory negligence as the adverse health effects were previously unknown or lacked substantial credibility. Health authorities sided with these claims up until 1998, from which they reversed their position. The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, originally between the four largest US tobacco companies and the Attorneys General of 46 states, restricted certain types of tobacco advertisement and required payments for health compensation; which later amounted to the largest civil settlement in United States history.

     From 1965 to 2006, rates of smoking in the United States have declined from 42% to 20.8%. A significant majority of those who quit were professional, affluent men. Despite this decrease in the prevalence of consumption, the average number of cigarettes consumed per person per day increased from 22 in 1954 to 30 in 1978. This paradoxical event suggests that those who quit smoked less, while those who continued to smoke moved to smoke more light cigarettes. This trend has been paralleled by many industrialized nations as rates have either leveled-off or declined. In the developing world, however, tobacco consumption continues to rise at 3.4% in 2002. In Africa, smoking is in most areas considered to be modern, and many of the strong adverse opinions that prevail in the West receive much less attention.Today Russia leads as the top consumer of tobacco followed by Indonesia, Laos, Ukraine, Belarus, Greece, Jordan, and China. The World Health Organization has begun a program known as the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) in order to reduce rates of consumption in the developing world.
Other substances
For more about the rise of Crack Cocaine, see Crack epidemic (United States).

     In the early 1980s, organized international drug trafficking grew. However, compounded with overproduction and tighter legal enforcement for the illegal product, drug dealers decided to convert the powder to “crack” – a solid, smoke-able form of cocaine, that could be sold in smaller quantities, to more people. This trend abated in the 1990s as increased police action coupled with a robust economy deterred many potential candidates to forfeit or fail to take up the habit.

     Recent years shows an increase in the consumption of vaporized heroin, methamphetamine and Phencyclidine (PCP). Along with a smaller number of psychedelic drugs such as DMT, 5-Meo-DMT, and Salvia divinorum.
Substances and equipment

     The most popular type of substance that is smoked is tobacco. There are many different tobacco cultivars which are made into a wide variety of mixtures and brands. Tobacco is often sold flavored, often with various fruit aromas, something which is especially popular for use with water pipes, such as hookahs. The second most common substance that is smoked is cannabis, made from the flowers or leaves of Cannabis sativa. The substance is considered illegal in most countries in the world and in those countries that tolerate public consumption, it is usually only pseudo-legal. Despite this, a considerable percentage of the adult population in many countries have tried it with smaller minorities doing it on a regular basis. Since cannabis is illegal or only tolerated in most jurisdictions, there is no industrial mass-production of cigarettes, meaning that the most common form of smoking is with hand-rolled cigarettes (often called joints) or with pipes. Water pipes are also fairly common, and when used for cannabis are called bongs.

     A few other recreational drugs are smoked by smaller minorities. Most of these substances are controlled, and some are considerably more intoxicating than either tobacco or cannabis. These include crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and PCP. A small number of psychedelic drugs are also smoked, including DMT, 5-Meo-DMT, and Salvia divinorum.

                                   An elaborately decorated pipe.

     Even the most primitive form of smoking requires tools of some sort to perform. This has resulted in a staggering variety of smoking tools and paraphernalia from all over the world. Whether tobacco, cannabis, opium or herbs, some form of receptacle is required along with a source of fire to light the mixture. The most common today is by far the cigarette, consisting of a tightly rolled tube of paper, which is usually manufactured industrially or rolled from loose tobacco, rolling papers which can include a filter. Other popular smoking tools are various pipes and cigars. A less common but increasingly popular form is through vaporizers, which operate using hot air convection by heating and delivering the substance without combustion; thereby decreasing health risks to the lungs.

     Other than the actual smoking equipment, many other items are associated with smoking; cigarette cases, cigar boxes, lighters, matchboxes, cigarette holders, cigar holders, ashtrays, pipe cleaners, tobacco cutters, match stands, pipe tampers, cigarette companions and so on. Many of these have become valuable collector items and particularly ornate and antique items can fetch high prices at the finest auction houses.

     An allegedly healthier alternative to smoking appeared in 2004 with the introduction of electronic cigarettes. These battery-operated, cigarette-like devices produce an aerosol intended to mimic the smoke from burning tobacco, delivering nicotine to the user without many of the other harmful substances released in tobacco smoke. Claims that electronic cigarettes are overall less harmful to use than real cigarettes are, however, disputed, as is their legal status in many countries.

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Tobacco Public policy

     The FCTC is the world’s first public health treaty. Countries that sign on as parties agree to a set of common goals, minimum standards for tobacco control policy, and to cooperate in dealing with cross-border challenges such as cigarette smuggling. Currently the WHO declares that 4 billion people will be covered by the treaty, which includes 168 signatories. Among other steps, signatories are to put together legislation that will eliminate secondhand smoke in indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public places and, as appropriate, other public places. Taxation See also: Cigarette taxes in the United States Many governments have introduced excise taxes on cigarettes in order to reduce the consumption of cigarettes. In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that each pack of cigarettes sold in the United States costs the nation more than $7 in medical care and lost productivity, over $2000 per year per smoker. Another study by a team of health economists finds the combined price paid by their families and society is about $41 per pack of cigarettes. Substantial scientific evidence shows that higher cigarette prices result in lower overall cigarette consumption. Most studies indicate that a 10% increase in price will reduce overall cigarette consumption by 3% to 5%. Youth, minorities, and low-income smokers are two to three times more likely to quit or smoke less than other smokers in response to price increases. Smoking is often cited as an example of an inelastic good, however, i.e. a large rise in price will only result in a small decrease in consumption. Many nations have implemented some form of tobacco taxation. As of 1997, Denmark had the highest cigarette tax burden of $4.02 per pack. Taiwan only had a tax burden of $0.62 per pack. Currently, the average price and excise tax on cigarettes in the United States is well below those in many other industrialized nations. Cigarette taxes vary widely from state to state in the United States. For example, South Carolina has a cigarette tax of only 7 cents per pack, the nation’s lowest, while Rhode Island has the highest cigarette tax in the U.S.: $3.46 per pack. In Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, New York City, Tennessee, and Virginia, counties and cities may impose an additional limited tax on the price of cigarettes. In the United Kingdom, a packet of 20 cigarettes typically costs between £4.25 and £5.50 depending on the brand purchased and where the purchase was made.The UK has a strong black market for cigarettes which has formed as a result of the high taxation, and it is estimated 27% of cigarette and 68% of handrolling tobacco consumption was non-UK duty paid (NUKDP). Restrictions An enclosed smoking area in a Japanese train station. Note air ventilation. Main articles: Tobacco advertising, Tobacco packaging warning messages, Smoking ban, and Smoking ban in private vehicles In June 1967, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that programs broadcast on a television station that discussed smoking and health were insufficient to offset the effects of paid advertisements that were broadcast for five to ten minutes each day. In April 1970, Congress passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act banning the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio starting on January 2, 1971. The Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 expressly prohibited almost all forms of Tobacco advertising in Australia, including the sponsorship of sporting or other cultural events by cigarette brands. All tobacco advertising and sponsorship on television has been banned within the European Union since 1991 under the Television Without Frontiers Directive (1989) This ban was extended by the Tobacco Advertising Directive, which took effect in July 2005 to cover other forms of media such as the internet, print media, and radio. The directive does not include advertising in cinemas and on billboards or using merchandising – or tobacco sponsorship of cultural and sporting events which are purely local, with participants coming from only one Member State as these fall outside the jurisdiction of the European Commission. However, most member states have transposed the directive with national laws that are wider in scope than the directive and cover local advertising. A 2008 European Commission report concluded that the directive had been successfully transposed into national law in all EU member states, and that these laws were well implemented. Some countries also impose legal requirements on the packaging of tobacco products. For example in the countries of the European Union, Turkey, Australia and South Africa, cigarette packs must be prominently labeled with the health risks associated with smoking. Canada, Australia, Thailand, Iceland and Brazil have also imposed labels upon cigarette packs warning smokers of the effects, and they include graphic images of the potential health effects of smoking. Cards are also inserted into cigarette packs in Canada. There are sixteen of them, and only one comes in a pack. They explain different methods of quitting smoking. Also, in the United Kingdom, there have been a number of graphic NHS advertisements, one showing a cigarette filled with fatty deposits, as if the cigarette is symbolising the artery of a smoker. Many countries have a smoking age, In many countries, including the United States, most European Union member states, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Israel, India, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Australia, it is illegal to sell tobacco products to minors and in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and South Africa it is illegal to sell tobacco products to people under the age of 16. On September 1, 2007 the minimum age to buy tobacco products in Germany rose from 16 to 18, as well as in Great Britain where on October 1, 2007 it rose from 16 to 18. Underlying such laws is the belief that people should make an informed decision regarding the risks of tobacco use. These laws have a lax enforcement in some nations and states. In China, Turkey, and many other countries usually a child will have little problem buying tobacco products, because they are often told to go to the store to buy tobacco for their parents. Several countries such as Ireland, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Norway, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Portugal, Singapore, Italy, Indonesia, India, Lithuania, Chile, Spain, Iceland, United Kingdom, Slovenia and Malta have legislated against smoking in public places, often including bars and restaurants. Restaurateurs have been permitted in some jurisdictions to build designated smoking areas (or to prohibit smoking). In the United States, many states prohibit smoking in restaurants, and some also prohibit smoking in bars. In provinces of Canada, smoking is illegal in indoor workplaces and public places, including bars and restaurants. As of March 31, 2008 Canada has introduced a smoking ban in all public places, as well as within 10 meters of an entrance to any public place. In Australia, smoking bans vary from state to state. Currently, Queensland has total bans within all public interiors (including workplaces, bars, pubs and eateries) as well as patrolled beaches and some outdoor public areas. There are, however, exceptions for designated smoking areas. In Victoria, smoking is banned in train stations, bus stops and tram stops as these are public locations where second hand smoke can affect non-smokers waiting for public transport, and since July 1, 2007 is now extended to all indoor public places. In New Zealand and Brazil, smoking is banned in enclosed public places mainly bars, restaurants and pubs. Hong Kong banned smoking on January 1, 2007 in the workplace, public spaces such as restaurants, karaoke rooms, buildings, and public parks. Bars serving alcohol who do not admit under-18s have been exempted till 2009. In Romania smoking is illegal in trains, metro stations, public institutions (except where designated, usually outside) and public transportation. Product safety An indirect public health problem posed by cigarettes is that of accidental fires, usually linked with consumption of alcohol. Numerous cigarette designs have been proposed, some by tobacco companies themselves, which would extinguish a cigarette left unattended for more than a minute or two, thereby reducing the risk of fire. Among American tobacco companies, some have resisted this idea, while others have embraced it. RJ Reynolds was a leader in making prototypes of these cigarettes in 1983 and will make all of their U.S. market cigarettes to be fire-safe by 2010. Phillip Morris is not in active support of it. Lorillard, the nation’s third largest tobacco company, seems to be ambivalent. Gateway drug theory Main articles: Tobacco and other drugs and Gateway drug theory The relationship between tobacco and other drug use has been well-established, however the nature of this association remains unclear. The two main theories are the phenotypic causation (gateway) model and the correlated liabilities model. The causation model argues that smoking is a primary influence on future drug use,[100] while the correlated liabilities model argues that smoking and other drug use are predicated on genetic or environmental factors. Cessation Main article: Smoking cessation Smoking cessation, referred to as “quitting” is the action leading towards abstinence of tobacco smoking. There are a number of methods such as cold turkey, nicotine replacement therapy, antidepressants, hypnosis, self-help, and support groups.

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History cigarettes

     A reproduction of a carving from the temple at Palenque, Mexico, depicting a Mayan priest smoking from a smoking tube.

     The earliest forms of cigarettes have been attested in Central America around the 9th century in the form of reeds and smoking tubes. The Maya, and later the Aztecs, smoked tobacco and various psychoactive drugs in religious rituals and frequently depicted priests and deities smoking on pottery and temple engravings. The cigarette, and the cigar, were the most common method of smoking in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America until recent times.

     The South and Central American cigarette used various plant wrappers; when it was brought back to Spain, maize wrappers were introduced, and by the seventeenth century, fine paper. The resulting product was called papelate and is documented in Goya’s paintings La Cometa, La Merienda en el Manzanares, and El juego de la pelota a pala (18th century).

     By 1830, the cigarette had crossed into France, where it received the name cigarette; and in 1845, the French state tobacco monopoly began manufacturing them.

     In the George Bizet opera Carmen, which was set in Spain in the 1830s, the title character Carmen was at first a worker in a cigarette factory.

      In the English-speaking world, the use of tobacco in cigarette form became increasingly popular during and after the Crimean War, when British soldiers began emulating their Ottoman Turkish comrades and Russian enemies.This was helped by the development of tobaccos that are suitable for cigarette use, and by the development of the Egyptian cigarette export industry.

     The widespread smoking of cigarettes in the Western world is largely a 20th century phenomenon – at the start of the century the per capita annual consumption in the USA was 54 cigarettes (equivalent to less than 0.5% of the population smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year), and consumption there peaked at 4,259 per capita in 1965. At that time about 50% of men and 33% of women smoked (defined as smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year). By 2000, consumption had fallen to 2,092 per capita, corresponding to about 30% of men and 22% of women smoking more than 100 cigarettes per year, and by 2006 per capita consumption had declined to 1,691;implying that about 21% of the population smoked 100 cigarettes or more per year.

     During World War I and World War II, cigarettes were rationed to soldiers. During the second half of the 20th century, the adverse health effects of cigarettes started to become widely known and text-only health warnings became commonplace on cigarette packets. The United States has not yet implemented graphical cigarette warning labels, which are considered a more effective method to communicate to the public the dangers of cigarette smoking. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, however, have both textual warnings and graphic visual images displaying, among other things, the damaging effects tobacco use has on the human body.

     The cigarette has evolved much since its conception; for example, the thin bands that travel transverse to the “axis of smoking” (thus forming circles along the length of the cigarette) are alternate sections of thin and thick paper to facilitate effective burning when being drawn, and retard burning when at rest. Synthetic particulate filters remove some of the tar before it reaches the smoker.
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Cigarettes – smoking

     The cigarette, a paper-wrapped roll of delicately cut tobacco, has been smoked by humans for centuries. The inhaling and exhaling of fumes of burning plant material was first introduced by the Aztecs who smoked a hollow reed or cane tube filled with tobacco, and by other natives of Mexico, Central America,and parts of South America who rolled the crushed tobacco leaves in corn (maize) husks or other vegetable wrappers. Often used in ceremonials by the American Indians, the ritual of smoking has continued throughout history. While itwas the cigar that Spanish conquistadors brought back from the New World that gained popularity as a symbol of wealth, the early 16th century found beggars in Seville fashioning the first cigarettes from discarded cigar butts which they shredded and rolled in scraps of paper (Spanish papeletes) to allow the poor man an opportunity to smoke his cigarrillos (Spanish for”little cigars”). As these gained respect, use of the little cigars traveledto Italy and Portugal in the 18th century, and Portuguese traders carried them to the Eastern Mediterranean and Russia. It was only during the NapoleonicWars that the French named them cigarettes. While another generation of French and British troops fought during the Crimean war forty years later, the cigarette was gaining popularity in the United States.
     In 1880, James A. Bonsack ended the need to hand roll and paste the cigarettewith his invention of the cigarette machine. A U.S. patent was granted for the machine that fed tobacco onto a continuous strip of paper and was automatically formed, pasted, closed, and cut to lengths by a rotary cutting knife. In 1883, the Bonsack machine was imported to England and the cigarette industry soon developed in several European countries throughout the next few years.The first half of the twentieth century found an enormous growth of cigarette smokers as improvements in cultivation and processing lessened the acid content in smoking tobacco, making it easier to inhale. Typically a man’s vice,cigarettes soon found their way into the hands of women throughout Europe andthe United States in the 1920s.


     Health hazards, such as lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease, were not associated with cigarette smoking until the 1950s and ’60s when medical evidence proved the correlation. It was during this time that smoking of cigaretteswas discouraged by certain nations, particularly the United Kingdom and theUnited States. In addition to a campaign that encouraged cigarettes with filter tips and the production of milder tobaccos, the early ’70s saw the demiseof tobacco advertising on television. The United States stopped their television advocacy of cigarettes in January 1971. Canada ended their advertising in1972, and West Germany followed suit by the end of the same year. Major American tobacco companies reached an agreement in April 1971 that required a health warning in other types of advertising, which subsequently became law. Another vehicle used to discourage the smoker was increased taxation of cigarettes during the late 20th century. The 1980s brought about the prohibition or restriction of smoking in public buildings and private sector businesses in the United States and several other countries. Although predictions of ill health and limitations to their use have taken priority, ironically, cigarettes continue to gain in popularity among men, women, and the very young.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has named tobacco one of the greatest public health threats of the twenty-first century. As of 1999, more than one billion people worldwide smoke, and 3.5 million people are expected to die fromcauses directly related to tobacco use. This death rate is expected to rise to 10 million by the year 2030. Seventy percent of these deaths will occur indeveloping countries where the proportion of smokers is growing, particularlyamong women. Calling tobacco “a global threat,” WHO says these figures do not include the enormous physical, emotional, and economic costs associated with disease and disability caused by tobacco use.

     In the United States alone, 25.2 million men, 23.2 million women, and 4.1 million teens between 12 and 17 years of age, smoke. Every day, more than threemillion youths under the age of 18 begin smoking. The gruesome statistics show that more than five million children alive today will die prematurely because, as adolescents, they decided to use tobacco. Nationally, one in five of all deaths are related to tobacco use. It kills more than 430,000 people everyyear–more than AIDS, alcohol, drugs abuse, automobile accidents, murders, suicides, and fires combined. Five million years of potential life is lost every year due to premature death caused by tobacco use, medical costs total more than $50 billion annually, and indirect cost another $50 billion.

     Of the 4,000 or more different chemicals present in cigarette smoke, 60 are known to cause cancer and others to cause cellular genetic mutations that canlead to cancer. Cigarette smoke contains nicotine–a highly addictive chemical–tars, nitrosamines, and polycyclic hydrocarbons, all of which are carcinogenic. It also contains carbon monoxide which, when inhaled, interferes with transportation and utilization of oxygen throughout the body.     Cigarette smoke is called mainstream smoke when inhaled directly from a cigarette. Sidestream smoke is smoke emitted from the burning cigarette and exhaled by the smoker. Sidestream smoke is also called environmental tobacco smoke(ETS) or secondhand smoke. Inhalation of ETS is known as passive smoking. In1993, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified ETS as a Group A (known human) carcinogen–the grouping reserved for the most dangerous carcinogens. By 1996, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that nine out of 10 non-smoking Americans are regularly exposed to ETS. A study by the American Heart Association reported in 1997 that women regularly exposed to ETS have a 91% greater risk ofheart attack and those exposed occasionally a 58% greater risk–rates whichare believed to apply equally to men. The EPA estimates that, annually, ETS is responsible for more than 3,000 lung cancer deaths, 35,000-62,000 deaths from heart attacks, and lower respiratory tract infections (such as bronchitis[300,000 cases annually] and asthma [400,000 existing cases]), and middle earinfections in children.     ETS may be more carcinogenic than mainstream smoke as it contains higher amounts of carcinogenic materials with smaller particles. These smaller particlesare more likely to lodge in the lungs than the larger particles in mainstream smoke. Researchers found that no safe threshold exists for exposure to ETS.With this information, many municipal governments and workplaces have bannedcigarette smoking altogether.     Scientific evidence has proven that smoking can cause cancer of the lung, larynx, esophagus, mouth, and bladder; cardiovascular disease; chronic lung ailments; coronary heart disease; and stroke. It also prohibits the healing of peptic ulcers, in addition to promoting recurrence of the condition. Smokelesstobacco has equally deadly consequences. When cigarette smoke is inhaled, thelarge surface area of the lung tissues and alveoli quickly absorb the chemical components and nicotine. Within one minute of inhaling, the chemicals in the smoke are distributed by the bloodstream to the brain, heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, muscle, and fat tissue. In pregnant women,cigarette smoke crosses the placenta and may effect fetal growth.Cardiovascular disease, or diseases of the blood vessels and heart, includesstroke, heart attack, peripheral vascular disease, and aortic aneurysm. In 1990 in the United States, one fifth of all deaths due to cardiovascular disease were linked to smoking. Specifically, 179,820 deaths from general cardiovascular disease, 134,235 deaths from heart disease, and 23,281 deaths from cerebrovascular disease (stroke) were directly linked to smoking. In addition, researchers have noted a strong dose-response relationship between the durationand extent of smoking and the death rate from heart disease in men under 65.The more one smokes, the more one is likely to develop heart disease. Researchers have also seen a similar trend in women.          Cigarette smoking leads to cardiovascular disease in a number of ways. Smoking damages the inside of the blood vessels, initiating changes that lead to atherosclerosis, a disease characterized by blood vessel blockage. It also causes the coronary arteries (that supply the heart muscle with oxygen) to constrict, increasing vulnerability of the heart to heart attack (when heart muscledies as a result of lack of oxygen) and cardiac arrest (when the heart stopsbeating). Smoking also raises the levels of low-density lipoproteins (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) in the blood, and lowers the levels of high-density lipoproteins (the so-called “good” cholesterol), a situation that has beenlinked to atherosclerosis. Finally, smoking increases the risk of stroke by 1.5 to 3 times the risk for nonsmokers.     Smoking causes 85% of all lung cancers, and 14% of all cancers–among them cancers of the mouth, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice-box), esophagus, stomach,pancreas, cervix, kidney, ureter, and bladder. More than 171,500 new diagnoses were expected in 1998. Other environmental factors add to the carcinogenicqualities of tobacco. For example, alcohol consumption combined with smokingaccounts for three-quarters of all oral and pharyngeal cancers. Also, persons predisposed genetically to certain cancers may develop cancer more quicklyif they smoke. Only 14% of lung cancer patients survive five years after diagnosis.     Smoking is the leading cause of lung disease in the United States. Among thedirect causes of death are pneumonia, influenza, bronchitis, emphysema, and chronic airway obstruction. Smoking increases mucus production in the airwaysand deadens the respiratory cilia, the tiny hairs that sweep debris out fromthe lungs. Without the action of the cilia, bacteria and inhaled particles from cigarette smoke are free to damage the lungs.     In the smaller airways of the lungs–the tiny bronchioles that branch off from the larger bronchi–chronic inflammation is present in smokers which causesairway to constrict causing cough, mucus production, and shortness of breath. Eventually, this inflammation can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition in which oxygen absorption by the lungs is greatly reduced, severely limiting the amount of oxygen transported to body tissues.     For the 40 years prior to 1987, breast cancer was the leading cause of cancerdeath among women in the United States. In 1987, lung cancer took the lead.As well as increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, women smokersare at increased risk of osteoporosis (a disease in which bones become brittle and vulnerable to breakage), cervical cancer, and decreased fertility. Pregnant women have increased risk for spontaneous abortion, premature separation of the placenta from the uterine wall (a life-threatening complication formother and fetus), placenta previa (in which the placenta implants much lowerin the uterus than normal, which may lead to hemorrhage), bleeding during pregnancy, and premature rupture of the placental membranes (which can lead toinfection). Infants born to women who smoke during pregnancy are at increasedrisk for low birth weight (18,600 cases annually), and other developmental problems. In men, smoking lowers testosterone levels, and appears to increasemale infertility.     Numerous other health problems are caused by smoking such as poor circulationin the extremities due to constricted blood vessels. This not only leads toconstantly cold hands and feet; it often requires amputation of the lower extremities. Smoking also deadens the taste buds and the receptors in the nasalepithelium, interfering with the senses of taste and smell, and may also contribute to periodontal disease.


     In 1992, the Surgeon General of the United States declared nicotine to be asaddictive as cocaine. An article published in the December 17, 1997 issue ofthe Journal of the National Cancer Institute stated nicotine addictionrates are higher than for alcohol or cocaine–that of all people trying onlyone cigarette, 33-50% will ultimately become addicted. The article concludedthat simply knowing the harmful effects of tobacco is insufficient to help people kick the addiction and that behavioral intervention and support methodssimilar to those applied in alcohol and drug addictions appear to be most helpful.

     The physical effects of cigarette smoke include several neurological responses that, in turn, stimulate emotional responses. When serotonin, a neurotransmitter (substances in the brain used by cells to transmit nerve impulses) is released, a person feels more alert. Nicotine stimulates serotonin release. Soon, however, serotonin release becomes sluggish without the boost from nicotine and the smoker becomes dependent on nicotine to prompt the release of serotonin. Other neurotransmitters released in response to nicotine include dopamine, opioids (naturally-occurring pain-killing substances), and various hormones, all of which have powerful effects on the brain where addiction occurs.
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     In 1998, scientists found a defective gene which makes the metabolism of nicotine difficult. The normal gene produces a liver enzyme needed to break downnicotine. The defective gene, found in about 20% of nonsmokers, may lessen the likelihood of nicotine addiction.

     In 1999, researchers discovered a version of a gene which increases the levels of dopamine in the brain. Because nicotine stimulates the release of dopamine, researchers believe the new-found gene may reduce the individual’s desireto “pump up” dopamine production with nicotine.

     Quitting smoking significantly lowers the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. In fact, the risk of lung cancer decreases from 18.83 at 1-4 years after quitting, to 7.73 at 5-9 years, to below 5 at 10-19 years, to 2.1 at 20-plus years. The risk of lung cancer for nonsmokers is 1. In 1997, the U.S. government’s Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) reported that for every one of the 46 million American smokers, there was an ex-smoker who had successfully quit the habit.

     Weight gain is a common side effect of quitting, since smoking interferes with pancreatic function and carbohydrate metabolism, leading to a lower body weight in some people. However, not all people experience this lowered body weight from smoking, thus, not all people who quit gain weight. Taste buds and smell are reactivated in nonsmokers, which may lead to increased food intake.

      About 80% of people who quit relapse within the first two weeks. Less than 3%of smokers become non-smokers annually. Nicotine gum and patches, which maintain a steady level of nicotine in the blood without the tar and carbon monoxide found in cigarettes, have been met with some success but are more successful when combined with other support programs. Other nicotine replacement products include a nasal spray and inhaler. The newest option for smokers who want to quit is the anti-smoking pill bupropion hydrochloride, also known as Zyban. This medication, which is used as an antidepressant and gained approvalby the FDA in 1997, seems to reduce nicotine withdrawal symptoms and the urgeto smoke without the use of any nicotine. Researchers now believe that smoking may be linked to depression, the withdrawal symptom causing most people who quit to begin again.

     In 1998, a $206 billion settlement from tobacco companies to 46 states included a ban on all outdoor advertising of tobacco products. The American Heart Association estimates that 4.1 million teenagers aged 12 through 17 years aresmokers. A study conducted by the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse indicates that if the smoking trend among young people continues, approximately5 million persons under 18 years old will die eventually from a smoking attributable disease. In 1999, the CDC appropriated more than $80 million to curtail tobacco use among young people. Coordinated education and prevention programs through schools have lowered the onset of smoking by 37% in seventh-gradestudents alone. By educating today’s youth to the dangers of tobacco use, adults of tomorrow will have longer, healthier, more productive lives.

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