Did you know that in the United States approximately 3000 teenagers start smoking and many of them continue this habit right into adult hood. And a survey in Australia taking by the cancer council in 1945 revealed that approximately 72% of men in Australia smoke. And about 26% of women in Australia smoke. But what makes cigarettes so addictive? And how did cigarettes begin? And how do the affect our society today?
Cigarettes first began when Europeans first met the Native Americans. That's when they found tobacco. Native Americans used tobacco for many reasons. Religious, Medical, Social and other. The tobacco plant also known as the Nicotiana tabacum is related to other vegetation such as nightshade plants, eggplant, potato, tomato and chilli pepper. All part of the Solanaceae family of plants. The tobacco plant also belongs to the genus nicotiana family. Tobacco grows in the rainforests and deserts of both North and South America. It is consumed in many ways. It can be sniffed, smoked, chewed, eaten and drunk in a variety of forms.
Native Americans believed that burning the tobacco leaves with bearberry leaves in medicine bundles, would send their prayers up to the Great Spirit through the smoke.
Christopher Columbus reached what is now the West Indies in October 1492. Among other gifts, the natives gave him dried tobacco leaves. He then bought the dried up tobacco leaves back to Europe including tobacco seeds. Tobacco seeds are so small that about one ounce contains 300,000 seeds.
The reason tobacco is so addictive is because it contains a substance known as nicotine. Nicotine is a natural liquid alkaloid. Your body takes in about one milligram when you smoke. The nicotine stimulates the body and changes the way your body and mind work. Nicotine can also give the user a skin, lung or mouth disease. Tobacco is one of the most common forms of substance abuse. When tobacco is used in any form whether it be sniffed, inhaled, smoked, chewed or any other way it gives the body a strong sense of pleasure and dependence. And when a person stops using tobacco they then go through the process of withdrawal.
Because nicotine is so addictive it makes the person want to smoke more. The short term affect of tobacco and nicotine is that it gives the person a very strong sense of pleasure and well being. But when stopped dramatically after a long term addiction the person begins to feel some mental discomfort and physical pain. This is known as withdrawal. Many smokers continue the habit after one or two years just to avoid the pain of withdrawal. But foundations such as the cancer foundations have national programs to help people escape their addiction.
Smoking doesn't only affect the person who is taking it. It can also affect the people around the addict. This can have serious consequences if the substance abuser has a child. For example. The person might be so addicted to tobacco they find it necessary to smoke inside the car as well. And if they were dropping their child off to school the child would be stuck in a moving vehicle with no means of escape from the deadly smoke. The child might become ill from being so exposed to the smoker so much. This is second hand smoke.
Second hand smoke can lead to health problems such as respiratory infections, cancer, asthma and many other health matters. Second hand smoke has such a major impact on infants. Second hand smoke is responsible for numbers ranging between 15,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in children under the age of 18 months. This results in hospitalizations ranging from 7,500 and 15,000 each year. And in the United States alone second hand smoke causes 430 SID cases. (Sudden infant death syndromes.)
Tobacco, when being produced, is carefully drained and then placed in fertilized soil. It is normally grown in a warm climate. The tobacco is then "cured". Curing tobacco is when the sap id dried up from the tobacco. After ninety days the tobacco is harvested. Curing the tobacco before harvesting improves the flavour of the tobacco but also adds many chemical changes to the plant. The tobacco is then stored to age, and finally the tobacco is put through a process called "fermentation". Fermentation gives the tobacco a sweet flavour but also seals the users fate by adding the highly addictive substance, nicotine.
In summary, smoking affects not only the health of our nation but places a burden on our hospitals, a burden on family finances and our physical and mental well being. One of the worst aspects of tobacco is that it is legal. And as soon as you are legally old enough you may purchase cigarettes. Although it is not seen as a "drug" it is an addiction and a danger to your health. All that takes is that first puff.
