For thousands of years tobacco was used by the American Indians with no ill-effect. In the 16th century it was brought to Europe. This early tobacco was mixed with soil and rather dirty. It was chewed or smoked in pipes only by men – women thought it smelly and disgusting.
It was first grown commercially in America in the 17th century on slave plantations. In the 18th century new technology refined tobacco and the first cigarettes were produced. By the 1880s huge factories were producing cigarettes which were clean and easy to smoke. Chain-smoking and inhaling became possible and by the middle of the 20th century tobacco addicts, both men and women, were dying of lung cancer in great numbers.
Nowadays cigarette smoking is banned in many places, especially in the USA. But until 1820 tobacco was America`s main export, and still today their tobacco industry makes over $4.2 billion a year.
So stop smoking, people! It makes no sense – you`re killing yourselves and the people who are around you and in the same time – making money for the big bosses in the tobacco companies. This is insanity!
