The authors begin this chapter with a discussion on the early history of tobacco use following its discovery n 1492.
Tobacco
The authors begin this chapter with a discussion on the early history of tobacco use following its discovery n 1492. The chapter points out the important historical significance of tobacco as a cash crop in the new world as well as discussing the current products, trends of their use and their importance in the economy of the United States. The pharmacology of nicotine is presented including discussions of its absorption, metabolism and physiological effects. Issues such as addiction, youth and maternal smoking are covered in “causes for concern” section. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of smoking cessation.
Tobacco has been a part of American culture since its beginning; it certainly made George Washington wealthy!
Let’s take a quick look at the timeline of tobacco history.
Tobacco was first discovered by the native people of Mesoamerica and South America and later introduced to Europe and the rest of the world. Tobacco had already long been used in the Americas by the time European settlers arrived and took the practice to Europe, where it became popular. Eastern North American tribes have historically carried tobacco in pouches as a readily accepted trade item, as well as smoking it in pipe ceremonies, whether for sacred ceremonies or those to seal a treaty or agreement. Tobacco is considered a gift from the creator, and tobacco smoke is seen as carrying one’s thought and prayers to the spirits.
In addition to its use in spiritual ceremonies, tobacco is also used for medical treatment of physical conditions. As a pain killer it has been used for earache and toothache and occasionally as a poultice. Some indigenous peoples in California have used tobacco as one ingredient in smoking mixtures for treating colds.
In addition to its traditional medicinal uses, tobacco was also used as a form of currency between Native Americans and Colonists from the 1620’s on.
Religious use of tobacco is still common among many indigenous peoples, particularly in the Americas. Among the Cree and Ojibwe of Canada and the north central United States, it is offered to the creator with prayers and is used in sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, and is presented as a gift. Europeans.
Of the four plants of the Americas that spread to the rest of the world in the Columbian Exchange – potato, maize, tomato and tobacco, tobacco is the only one used in every country. Greek and Roman accounts exist of smoking hemp seeds and a Spanish poem circa 1276 mentions the energetic effects of lavender smoke, but tobacco was completely unfamiliar to Europeans before the discovery of the New World.
Following the arrival of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling colonization, and also became a driving factor in the incorporation of African slave labor. The Spanish introduced tobacco to Europeans about 1528 and by 1533 Diego Columbus mentioned a tobacco merchant of Lisbon in his will, showing how quickly the traffic had sprung up.
Jean Nicot, a French ambassador in Lisbon sent samples to Paris in 1559. The French, Spanish, and Portuguese initially referred to the plant as the “sacred herb” because of its valuable medicinal properties. Nicot sent leaves and seeds to Francis I and his mother Catherine of Medici, with instructions to use tobacco as snuff. The king’s recurring headaches ( maybe sinus troubles) were reportedly to be “marvelously cured” by snuff. French cultivation of herbe de la Reine (the queen’s herb) began in 1560. By 1570 botanists referred to tobacco as Nicotiana, although Andre Thevet claimed that he, not Nicot had introduced tobacco to France: historians believe that this is unlikely to be true, but Thevet was the first Frenchman to write about it.
In 1563 a Swiss doctor, Conrad Gesner reported that chewing or smoking a tobacco leaf has a wonderful power of producing a kind of peaceful drunkenness. In 1571 a Spanish doctor Nicolas Monardes wrote a book about the history of medicinal plants of the new world. In this he claimed that tobacco could cure 36 health problems, and reported that the plant was first brought to Spain for its flowers, but “now we use it to a greater extent for the sake of its virtues than for its beauty”.
It was John Hawkins who was the first to bring tobacco seeds to England about 1573. This was before Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first “Virginia” tobacco to Europe from the Roanoke Colony, he referred to it as “tobah”. In 1595 Anthony Chute published Tabaco, which repeated earlier arguments about the benefits of the plant and emphasized the health-giving properties of pipe-smoking. Finally in 1604 Stuart King James I wrote a famous polemic titled A Counterblaste to Tobacco. In the poem he says tobacco use is a “custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse” That year, an English statue was enacted that placed heavy protective tariff n tobacco imports. So finally, someone sees tobacco as it really is, but this did not slow down its booming popularity as time goes on.
The Roman Catholic Church did not condemn tobacco as James the 1st did but Pope Urban VII threatened excommunication to anyone smoking in a church. 1634 Russia banned tobacco except for foreigner’s in Moscow. Later, Peter the Great revoked the bans. In 1542 the Japanese were introduced to tobacco by Portuguese sailors . In the 16th century tobacco became a commonly prescribed medicine for many ailments in the Ottoman Empire. But it was banned in 1633. From this time until 1750 there were accounts of children and women also smoking.
Nicotiana suaveolens is native to Australia, tobacco smoking first reached that continent\’s shores when it was introduced to northern dwelling indigenous communities by visiting Indonesian fishermen in the early 18th century. By the 19th century tobacco was an essential commodity routinely issued to servants, prisoners and ticket-of-eave men (conditionally released convicts) as an inducement to work. It was withheld as a mean of punishment!
After James Bonsack invented an automated machine that increased cigarette production the sales increased tremendously. By the 20th century manufactured cigarettes were popular everywhere. And during the 20th century cigarettes also began to be slammed for their negative effect on people’s health. Tobacco became condemned as a health hazard, and eventually became known to be a cause for cancer, as well as other respiratory and circulatory diseases.
In 1970’s Brown & Williamson cross-bred a strain of tobacco to produce Y1. This strain of tobacco contained an unusually high amount of nicotine, nearly doubling its content form 3.2-3.5% to 6.5%. In the 1990’s this prompted the Food & Drug Administration to use this strain as evidence that tobacco companies were intentionally manipulating the nicotine content of cigarettes. In 2003 in response to growth of tobacco use in developing countries, the World Health Organization successfully rallied 168 countries to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The convention is designed to push for effective legislation and its enforcement in all countries to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco. Which has led to the development of tobacco cessation products.
We know that smoking is dangerous and can cause cancer and yet, so many young people keep on trying it. Stop smoking programs are everywhere and many different forms of quitting, everything from acupuncture to the “patch” and nicotine gum. I even had a friend that tried hypnotism. And now there is vaping and it’s not getting good reviews, but a friend of mine that switched from smoking cigarettes to vaping is happy she’s not smoking, but now, she can’t quit vaping.
Vaping as you know is an electronic or e-cigarette. It’s hand held and simulated the feeling of tobacco smoking. It works by heating a liquid to generate an aerosol, commonly called a “vapor”, the user inhales. There are particles in vaping that many believe is the water, but it contains varying amounts of toxic chemicals, which have also been linked to cancer as well as respiratory and heart disease. The health risks are still being evaluated; more research is being done to find all the potential risks.
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