A Miraculous Plant
The tobacco cigarette in its modern form is so ubiquitous, so seemingly organic, that it is hard to imagine a world without it. However, throughout the course of human existence, the tobacco plant was relatively unknown and unused. In fact, the tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum, was only indigenous to central and south America, and was initially harvested for ceremonial or medicinal practices(1). The earliest evidence for the use of tobacco in the Americas dates back to around 100 BCE. By the time Christopher Columbus set foot in the West Indies CE 1492, tobacco had been used in the New World for at least 1400 years, a practice entirely foreign to the would be European assailants. Columbus and his men would take up the practice …show more content…
government did not formally acknowledge the dangers of tobacco use until January 11, 1964. By the time the U.S. Surgeon General, Luther L. Terry, and the U.S. Public Health Service released their first report, some 7000 articles regarding the dangers of tobacco were already of record(8). Although the Surgeon General’s report on tobacco was the first statement by the U.S. Government regarding tobacco’s role in cancer, concerns over the safety of tobacco had already been noted as early as the 18th century. In 1761, an Englishman by the name of John Hill, a famous botanist and provocateur, first reported that the use of snuff could lead to mouth cancer. Hill went on to report that smoking tobacco led to greater mortality(9). In 1795, Samuel von Soemmerring reported that pipe smoking was correlated with cancers of the lip(2). By the 1820’s, German scientists recognized that a few drops of pure nicotine was a powerful poison capable of killing a horse(1). In the mid 19th century, Etienni-Frederic Bouisson reported that 63 out of 68 patients he treated for oral cancer smoked tobacco(2). These early warning signs were a diminutive prelude for an epidemic that was not yet under way. The assassins in the smoke were still asleep. Big tobacco was about to …show more content…
In modern times it is easy to take for granted the ease at which we can produce a flame. However, prior to the invention of matches, producing a flame took effort. Integral to the cigarette’s survival was a means to safely produce fire on demand. In 1849, Gustaf Erik Pasch developed a safety match, which used red phosphorus on the end of a stick of wood. To ignite the match, the red phosphorus would have to be struck on a special preparation, typically embedded on the side of its box. The mass production of matches came in 1860 when machines were used to produce thousands of matches per day. In 1889, paper matchbooks were invented and pocket-sized matches could be carried easily in a shirt
The tobacco cigarette in its modern form is so ubiquitous, so seemingly organic, that it is hard to imagine a world without it. However, throughout the course of human existence, the tobacco plant was relatively unknown and unused. In fact, the tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum, was only indigenous to central and south America, and was initially harvested for ceremonial or medicinal practices(1). The earliest evidence for the use of tobacco in the Americas dates back to around 100 BCE. By the time Christopher Columbus set foot in the West Indies CE 1492, tobacco had been used in the New World for at least 1400 years, a practice entirely foreign to the would be European assailants. Columbus and his men would take up the practice …show more content…
government did not formally acknowledge the dangers of tobacco use until January 11, 1964. By the time the U.S. Surgeon General, Luther L. Terry, and the U.S. Public Health Service released their first report, some 7000 articles regarding the dangers of tobacco were already of record(8). Although the Surgeon General’s report on tobacco was the first statement by the U.S. Government regarding tobacco’s role in cancer, concerns over the safety of tobacco had already been noted as early as the 18th century. In 1761, an Englishman by the name of John Hill, a famous botanist and provocateur, first reported that the use of snuff could lead to mouth cancer. Hill went on to report that smoking tobacco led to greater mortality(9). In 1795, Samuel von Soemmerring reported that pipe smoking was correlated with cancers of the lip(2). By the 1820’s, German scientists recognized that a few drops of pure nicotine was a powerful poison capable of killing a horse(1). In the mid 19th century, Etienni-Frederic Bouisson reported that 63 out of 68 patients he treated for oral cancer smoked tobacco(2). These early warning signs were a diminutive prelude for an epidemic that was not yet under way. The assassins in the smoke were still asleep. Big tobacco was about to …show more content…
In modern times it is easy to take for granted the ease at which we can produce a flame. However, prior to the invention of matches, producing a flame took effort. Integral to the cigarette’s survival was a means to safely produce fire on demand. In 1849, Gustaf Erik Pasch developed a safety match, which used red phosphorus on the end of a stick of wood. To ignite the match, the red phosphorus would have to be struck on a special preparation, typically embedded on the side of its box. The mass production of matches came in 1860 when machines were used to produce thousands of matches per day. In 1889, paper matchbooks were invented and pocket-sized matches could be carried easily in a shirt