Tobacco smoking

Tobacco smoking is the act of smoking tobacco products, especially cigarettes and cigars.

The practice of smoking tobacco originated among Native Americans in eastern North America, where tobacco is native. It was adopted by many Europeans following the colonization of the Americas. According to the World Health Organization, it is most common in east Asia, where as many as two-thirds of all adult males smoke tobacco. Because of concern over the health hazards of smoking, the practice has rapidly declined in recent years in the United States, Canada and western Europe. However, statistics show that at least a quarter of people even in these regions continue to smoke, and there is no indication smoking will die out completely.

Tobacco may be smoked in several forms, the most common being the cigarette, the cigar, and the pipe. Cigarette smoking is by far the most common. Pipes and cigars are less common, and some stereotype these as exclusively for men. Yet female cigar smokers have always existed and their proportion of the total is increasing. For example, Cheryl Robinson, director of Le Cigar at Tatou, estimates that 22% of her guests are women. The hookah or water pipe is used in the Middle East.

In the case of cigarette smoking, smoke is inhaled into the lungs. Tobacco smoke contains the stimulant nicotine, which, many claim, forms a strong physical and psychological chemical dependence ( addiction). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,claim that nicotine is a "very addictive drug" that can be "as addictive as heroin or cocaine." Dependence is strongest when tobacco smoke is inhaled into the lungs and increases with quantity and speed of nicotine absorption. Nicotine is typically eliminated from the body within 2 to 3 days, however, physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms may last for much longer depending on the individual. [3]

Medical research has suggested smoking may be a contributing factor towards some human health problems, especially lung cancer, emphysema, and other disorders, although the actual extent of the damage caused by smoking is contested among various researchers. In recent years and in many countries tobacco advertising has been regulated or restricted. In some countries smoking bans have come into effect.

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 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 neighbors 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 China in 1610 prohibited use and cultivation of tobacco; from 1638, smokers could be punished by decapitation in China. 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.

The cigar became immensely popular in England in the late 1820s. The cigarette appeared in 1828 in Spain, and enjoyed immediate success. The protagonist of Prosper Merimee's Carmen of 1845 is a girl working in a cigarette factory. But the cigarette remained less popular than the cigar or pipe until the early 20th century in most of Europe, when cheap mechanically made cigarettes became common. Queen Victoria hated tobacco, but after her death, in 1901, her son and successor Edward VII gathered his friends in a large drawing room at Buckingham Palace and entered with a lit cigar in his hand, announcing "Gentlemen, you may smoke", initiating the upper class British smoking room.

Tobacco companies succeeded in having their product included in military rations during World War I, where under the stress of warfare many soldiers took up smoking, becoming habitual smokers. After the war, during the Roaring Twenties, cigarette smoking was portrayed in advertising as part of a glamorous carefree lifestyle, and became socially acceptable for women as well.

In the 1930s Nazi medical and military leaders became concerned that tobacco might prove a hazard to human health, concluding that the "extraordinary rise in tobacco use" was "the single most important cause of the rising incidence of lung cancer". From 1933 to 1945 Germany had the world's strongest anti smoking movement, with the full support of Adolf Hitler, who disapproved of smoking. He characterised tobacco as "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man for having been given hard liquor." [4]

Germany's defeat in 1945 meant that its aggressive anti-tobacco movement declined. Hitler and the campaigners behind the movement were dead, had been silenced, or were later executed for crimes against humanity. Much of the science on the dangers of tobacco had been gathered through brutal experimentation on concentration camp prisoners. [5] German physician Knut-Olaf Haustein was known for his work studying the effects of tobacco smoking.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when the medical community and government (particularly in the United States) began a campaign to reduce the degree of smoking by showing how it damaged public health. In recent years tobacco smoking in many regions of the world has dramatically dropped.

Health effects

Passive smoking

Smoking cessation

Many of tobacco's health effects can be minimised through smoking cessation. The " British doctors study" showed that those who stopped smoking before they reached 30 years of age lived almost as long as those who never smoked. It is also possible to help reduce the risks by reducing the frequency of smoking and by proper diet and exercise. Some research has indicated that some of the damage caused by smoking tobacco can be moderated with the use of antioxidants.

Smokers wanting to quit (or to temporarily abstain from) smoking can use a variety of nicotine-containing tobacco subsitutes, or Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products to temporarily lessen the physical withdrawal symptoms, the most popular being nicotine gum and lozenges. Nicotine patches are also used for smoking cessation. Medications that do not contain nicotine can also be used, such as bupropion (Zyban).

Discussing quitting smoking with supportive people can also be helpful, both in person and through telephone quitlines, such as 1-800-QuitNow, in the U.S. In addition, there are lots of self-help books on the market, for example those by Allen Carr and David Marks.

Opinions on smoking

Native Americans and smoking

Communal smoking of a sacred tobacco pipe was a universal ritual through Native America, and was considered a sacred part of their religion. Sema, the Anishnabe word for tobacco, is still used for ceremonial uses today among Native Americans. It was grown for ceremonial use and considered the ultimate sacred plant. Tobacco smoke was believed to carry prayers to the heavens. These rituals were performed, on average, no more than once a month, which differs widely from modern smoking, which is much more frequent and usually devoid of spiritual significance. The tobacco used during these rituals varied widely in potency -- the Nicotiana rustica species used in South America, for instance, has up to twice the nicotine content of the common North American N. tabacum. To this day many Native American tribes operate tobacco stores, including on the Internet, where they are usually exempt from taxes and therefore can sell products cheaper than non-Native American dealers.

Christianity and smoking (arguments against)

In more modern times, even before the health risks of smoking were identified for study, smoking was considered an immoral habit by certain Christian preachers and social reformers. Tobacco was listed, along with drunkenness, gambling, cards, dancing and theater-going, in J.M. Judy's Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes, which was published in 1904 by the Western Methodist Book Concern of Chicago, is a book featuring anti-smoking dialogue.

Moral concerns about both self-injury are also prevalent in Catholic medical ethics on the grounds that people ought to be responsible stewards of the body as a gift from the divine; the stewardship argument is also used among Protestant groups as an argument against smoking.

Judaism and smoking (arguments against)

The Jewish leader Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan ( 1838- 1933) was one of the first Jewish authorities to speak out on smoking. He considered it a health risk, a waste of time, and saw the practice of people "borrowing" (pilfering) cigarettes from each other as morally questionable.

A shift toward health-oriented concerns may be observed in some people's interpretations of Jewish law ( halakha). For instance, when the link between smoking and health was still doubted, Rabbi Moses Feinstein response stated that smoking was permitted, although still inadvisable.

More recently, rabbinic responsa tend to argue that smoking is prohibited as self-endangerment under Jewish law and that smoking in indoor spaces should be restricted as a type of damage to others(See article on Jewish law and history on smoking).

Other opinions on smoking

Much opposition to smoking is based on arguments grounded on alleged unethical corporate practices of the tobacco industry and public health concerns. Many public interest groups are interested in controlling smoking-induced problems through political means, and mostly consist of former smokers, health professionals, corporate responsibility advocates, school and community-based organizations, and environmental groups.

David Krogh argues for tobacco's uniqueness as a drug and accounts for the fact that in the past, many moralists who disapproved of "recreational" drugs approved of tobacco.

Krogh's book argues that tobacco is not like alcohol or so-called controlled substances, including marijuana, and how smokers use tobacco to normalize their feelings within the narrow band necessary for functioning within an industrial society, where energy levels have to be carefully rationed according to expectations.

Kantians, however, argue against self-injury as a necessary duty, consistent with the moral law or categorical imperative.

Legal issues and regulation

In many countries, including the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia, it is illegal to sell tobacco products to minors. In the United Kingdom it is illegal to sell tobacco products to people under the age of 16. In 47 of the 50 United States, the minimum age is 18, except for Alabama and Alaska where the legal age is 19. In New Jersey the age to purchase cigarettes will rise to 19 on April 15, 2006. Some countries have also legislated against giving tobacco products to (i.e. buying for) minors, and even against minors engaging in the act of smoking. Underlying such laws is the belief that people should make an informed decision regarding the risks of tobacco use.

Several Western countries have also put restrictions on cigarette advertising. In the United States, all television advertising of tobacco products has been prohibited since 1971. In Australia, the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 prohibits tobacco advertising in any form, with a very small number of exceptions (some international sporting events are excepted, but these exceptions will be revoked in 2006). Other countries have legislated particularly against advertising that appears to target minors.

Some countries also impose legal requirements on the packaging of tobacco products. For example in the countries of the European Union and Australia, cigarette packs must be prominently labeled with the health risks associated with smoking . Canada has 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.

On February 28, 2005, an international treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, took effect. 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 92 signatories. Amongst other steps, signatories are to put together legislation that will eliminate second-hand smoke in indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public places and, as appropriate, other public places.

Smoking bans

In addition, some jurisdictions impose restrictions on where smoking is allowed.

Several European countries such as the Republic of Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, and Spain have legislated against smoking in public places, often including bars and resutuarants. Similar bans will will also take effect in the UK at various intervals (Scotland from March 26, 2006, Northern Ireland from April 2007, England from summer 2007 and Wales at a similar time).

In the United States, many states prohibit smoking in restaurants, and some also prohibit smoking in bars.

See the List of smoking bans article for a full list of restrictions in various areas around the world.

External Sources

"Smoking: the Artificial Passion", David Krough (Freeman 1992)