Tobacco: History, Timeline, and Health Resources

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What is Tobacco?

Tobacco is a popular plant product that is used in cigarettes, cigars, pipes, snuff, and other methods of smoking or ingestion. The tobacco plant has played a very integral role in the history of the United States and all over the world. It is known as a “cash crop,” meaning that the plant has brought farmers money due to its high demand. Aside from cotton, tobacco is one of America’s most important plants that helped to shape the growth and development of the country.

The Discovery of Tobacco

Tobacco was originally grown over 6,000 years ago in the Americas. Native Americans were growing and smoking the plant before the colonists discovered the land in America. The Native Americans referred to their smoking of tobacco in a form of large, rolled cigars called “tabaco.” Christopher Columbus found out about tobacco in the nation of Cuba, and brought it over to Europe, where it quickly grew in popularity. France had tobacco growing as far back as 1546, when a monk named Andre Thevet brought seeds into the country for cultivation. Since tobacco became a wanted commodity in Europe, it then spread into profitable farms in America once the settlers arrived, because they knew what a money-maker it was, and what kind of high demand there was for it.

Tobacco played an integral role in the new world. It was quickly realized that men enjoyed smoking its leaves, and that it had several different marketable uses. It increased in demand and became a trade item, and the colonists in the new world already had a knack for growing it. Since tobacco had been brought into Europe before the development of the new world, the colonists had experience in growing and cultivating it. This turned into a profit making machine, and a bargaining chip between themselves and the Native Americans. Tobacco eventually replaced wampum as currency, and was soon known as the most valuable cash crop available to man. Even as the American government was in its beginning stages, laws were created to protect tobacco and ensure its value stayed stable.

In Europe, tobacco use was first reserved only for members of high society. It was an expensive product, and often only royalty or important businessmen would be seen smoking or using tobacco. It was also used as a medicine to help keep pain caused by various diseases to a minimum. Doctors carried it with them as a form of medication. The Roman Catholic clergy even used tobacco in the form of snuff, which helped to increase the desire to use the plant. Soon, it grew and became a more commonly seen item, even among farmers and peasants. An automated cigarette machine was created in 1880, which led to widespread use of tobacco throughout America. In early America, it was considered a good thing, however by the early 1900s, scientists were beginning to notice its negative effects on the human body. As companies developed tobacco into marketable forms, the government began to regulate its contents and resale properties. Today, tobacco is considered a health hazard. The price has increased significantly, and tobacco users are now taxed by both federal and state governments. Cigarette companies must pay fees to stay in business, and children and teenagers are encouraged not to abuse or even begin using tobacco because of the health dangers it poses.

Studies have shown that smoking causes various forms of cancer, particularly lung cancer. It is also one of the leading causes of heart disease. While the US government and other governments around the world discourage smoking, nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Despite attempts to inform and educate people about the dangers of smoking, millions of people still smoke today. Sadly, more and more teenagers are beginning to smoke at an earlier age. Through education and research, more can be done to help those who currently smoke to quit, and to prevent those who have never smoked from starting.

Brief Timeline of Tobacco

• Tobacco was first used by the peoples of the pre-Columbian Americas. Native Americans apparently cultivated the plant and smoked it in pipes for medicinal and ceremonial purposes.
• Christopher Columbus brought a few tobacco leaves and seeds with him back to Europe. Europeans didn’t get their first taste of tobacco until the mid-16th century, when adventurers and diplomats like France’s Jean Nicot(nicotine is named after him).
• Tobacco was introduced to France in 1556, Portugal in 1558, and Spain in 1559, and England in 1565.
• The first successful commercial crop was cultivated in Virginia in 1612 by Englishman John Rolfe.
• At first, tobacco was produced mainly for pipe-smoking, chewing, and snuff.
• Cigarettes, which had been around in crude form since the early 1600s, didn’t become widely popular in the United States until after the Civil War, with the spread of “Bright” tobacco, a uniquely cured yellow leaf grown in Virginia and North Carolina. Cigarette sales surged again with the introduction of the “White Burley” tobacco leaf and the invention of the first practical cigarette-making machine.
• The negative health effects of tobacco were not initially known; in fact, most early European physicians subscribed to the Native American belief that tobacco can be an effective medicine.
• A growth in smoking began by the early 20th century.
• In 1930, researchers in Cologne, Germany, made a statistical correlation between cancer and smoking.
• By 1944, the American Cancer Society began to warn about possible ill effects of smoking, although it admitted that “no definite evidence exists” linking smoking and lung cancer. A statistical correlation between smoking and cancer had been demonstrated; but no causal relationship had been shown.
• In 1952 Reader’s Digest published “Cancer by the Carton,” an article detailing the dangers of smoking. The effect of the article was enormous: Similar reports began appearing in other periodicals, and the smoking public began to take notice.
• 1953 cigarette sales declined for the first time in over two decades due to the Reader’s Digest article.
• By 1954 the major U.S. tobacco companies had formed the Tobacco Industry Research Council to counter the growing health concerns. With counsel from TIRC, tobacco companies began mass-marketing filtered cigarettes and low-tar formulations that promised a “healthier” smoke.
• The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health was formed in the early 1960′s.
• Convened in response to political pressures and a growing body of scientific evidence suggesting a causal relationship between smoking and cancer, the committee released a 387-page report in 1964 entitled “Smoking and Health.” In unequivocal terms, it concluded that: “Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men.” It said that the data for women, “though less extensive, point in the same direction.”
• In 1965, Congress passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requiring the surgeon general’s warnings on all cigarette packages.
• In 1971, all broadcast advertising was banned.
• In 1990, smoking was banned on all interstate buses and all domestic airline flights lasting six hours or less.
• In 1994, Mississippi filed the first of 22 state lawsuits seeking to recoup millions of dollars from tobacco companies for smokers’ Medicaid bills.
• In 1995, President Clinton announced FDA plans to regulate tobacco, especially sales and advertising aimed at minors.

Resources about Tobacco

The Tobacco Products Liability Project by the PHAI. The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) is a legal research center focused on public health law.

More About Tobacco Advertising and the Tobacco Collections. Tobacco advertising in America first appeared in 1789, when the Lorillard brothers advertised their snuff and tobacco products in a local New York daily paper. Advertising for tobacco, and most other products, over the next 70 years took this same form – mostly unadorned advertisements in local or regional newspapers.

Library of Tobacco documents

CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health offers information related to smoking and tobacco use

FDA’s information about tobacco products and use

NIDA InfoFacts: Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products

Tobacco.org

Resource by B.Sobey

I am a recent masters graduate from FL. I enjoy the beach, traveling, and writing. I just moved to South Carolina in hopes to find a job as a journalist.

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