Good Herbal Health

Smoking is the practice of inhaling tobacco from a pipe, cigar, or cigarette. The custom of smoking tobacco is thought to have started in the Americas. In the late 1400’s, English and Spanish explorers returning from the New World brought back to Europe the custom of pipe smoking, which they had learned from the Indians. Cigarette smoking may have started among the Aztecs of Mexico, who smoked shredded tobacco rolled inside corn husks.

Until the 1900’s, tobacco was used mainly in cigars, chewing tobacco, and snuff. Later cigarette smoking became popular and increased sharply after World War 1 and Again after World War 2.

In 1946, the United States Public Health Service released a landmark document, Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General, which concluded that smoking is a major cause of cancer of the lung, mouth, and throat. Since then, researchers have shown that each year cigarette smoking causes more than 300,000 premature deaths in the United States alone, principally from heart disease, cancer, and chronic (long-lasting) obstructing lung disease, such as emphysema.

In 1965, Congress adopted legislation required that all cigarette packages carry a warning about the health hazards of smoking. Today, four different warning labels are placed on cigarette packages and advertisements: (1) Smoking by Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, and Low Birth Weight; (2) Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide; (3) Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy; and (4) Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health. Cigarette advertisements on radio and television have been banned since 1970.

One of the more recent concerns about smoking is the effect that tobacco smoke has on nonsmokers (passive) or involuntary smoking). The 1986 Surgeon General’s report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, came to three major conclusions; (1) Involuntary smoking is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers; (2) The children of parents who smoke have more respiratory infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, than the children of nonsmokers; (3) The separation of smokers and nonsmokers may reduce, but does not eliminate, the exposure of nonsmokers to environmental tobacco smoke. These findings support the recent trend toward restricting or banning smoking in public places and in the workplace.

Campaigns aimed at educating the public about the health hazards of smoking have been very successful. Studies show that 90 percent of the US adult population now recognizes that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema. Teenagers have begun turning away from cigarettes. The percentage of high school seniors who smoke every day has fallen steadily since 1987.