History of Smoking as a Social Problem

Tobacco played a far more ceremonial and structured role,seen by Native Americans as a means for providing communication with the supernatural world for either
medicinal or spiritual purposes.

Smoking is the act of inhaling and exhaling the fumes of burning plant material. A variety of plant materials are smoked, including marijuana and hashish, but the act is most commonly associated with tobacco as smoked in a cigarette,cigar, or pipe.

Tobacco contains nicotine, an alkaloid that is addictive and can have both stimulating and tranquilizing psychoactive effects.

Smoking soon spread to other areas and today is widely practiced around the world despite medical, social, and religious arguments against it.

In the 20th century, the most common tobacco products were cigars, pipe tobacco, and chewing tobacco, although cigarette smoking was beginning to increase dramatically.

By the 21st century, tobacco had become recognized as being highly addictive and one of the world’s most devastating causes of death and disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in the late 1990s there were approximately 4 million tobacco-caused deaths per year worldwide. It is estimated that approximately one-third of all cancer deaths worldwide are attributable to tobacco.

During the 20th century, cigarette smoking grew to account for approximately 80 percent of the world’s tobacco market.

All tobacco products are toxic and addictive- A major health effect common to all forms of tobacco use is addiction, or, more technically, dependence.

The primary constituents of tobacco smoke are nicotine, tar (the particulate residue from combustion), and gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

The body creates more and more nicotine receptors and as a result, the smoker experiences a phenomenon called tolerance.

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