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The History of the Smoking Industry
In the past 500 years tobacco has gone from the status of a sacred plant, utilized for medicinal and ceremonial purposes, to the maligned product of the vast international tobacco industry that exists today. This history of the tobacco plant, covering multiple continents and over five centuries, is a fascinating one.
Pre-Columbian Tobacco
Tobacco is one of many species of the genus Nicotiana, a member of the nightshade family that includes potatoes, tomatoes, and deadly nightshade. Native to North and South America, it is estimated that its use by the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere dates back at least 3,000 or more years. Used extensively by people in all parts of the Americas, it was considered a sacred plant with many beneficial properties. Ceremonial use in North America honored the plant as a gift of the Creator. It was traded, used to cement bargains and agreements, and employed as offerings. It was believed that the smoke from this important plant could carry prayers to the heavens. Nicotiana rustica may be the original tobacco plant. It was extensively used by the natives of North America. Nicotiana tabacum, a stronger plant native to South and Central America, is the type now used commercially. The South American Indians smoked, chewed, and used this tobacco as snuff and as medicine. It was employed against asthma, bites, skin disorders, urinary tract problems, fevers, and many other ailments.
German scientists discovered the existence of tobacco in mummies in Egypt and Sudan indicating either trade existed with the New World in Egyptian times or a possible species of tobacco existed in North Africa that later vanished.
Europe Discovers a New World and Tobacco
In October of 1492, Christopher Columbus was presented with the dried leaves of the tobacco plant starting the centuries-long involvement of Europe in the tobacco trade. The plant was brought to Europe where it was cultivated across the continent within a half century. The official genus name, Nicotiana, was in honor of Jean Nicot who presented the plant as a medicine to the French court in 1559. The use of tobacco spread across Europe as both a recreational and medicinal plant.
Tobacco was the first cash crop grown in the early colonies of North America. Its cultivation began in the early 1600s and quickly became the major export of Virginia. Its increasing cultivation played a part in the slave trade, as tobacco was, and still is, a labor-intensive crop. Tobacco was used to assist the financing of the new colonies and the American Revolution.
Early use was as pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff. Two hundred years passed before the cigar became popular in the early 1800s. Health effects were considered positive, and tobacco was widely used by physicians for a variety of problems. In the late 1500s a Spanish doctor claimed that tobacco could cure three-dozen ailments. This view of tobacco remained entrenched for centuries.
The Tobacco Industry
From the time of its discovery in the New World to the establishment of early tobacco processing companies in the mid-1700s, to the multi-billion dollar tobacco industry today, tobacco has functioned as a lucrative cash crop in the Americas. The addictive nature of tobacco was recognized as early as 1610 when Sir Francis Bacon complained of the difficulties involved in quitting the habit. In 1760, the P. Lorillard Company was established in New York City, becoming on of the first companies to process tobacco into cigars and snuff. It remains the oldest such company in the United States. By the 1840s, one of the largest tobacco companies of today was established to produce newly popular cigarettes, Phillip Morris.
By 1900, cigarettes surpassed other forms of tobacco in popularity. In 1913, R.J. Reynolds was established and introduced the Camel brand cigarette. Due to their convenient form and low price, the use of cigarettes boomed during WWI. Competition for the market intensified with Phillip Morris introducing the Marlboro in 1924 as a milder form of cigarette preferred by women. Not to be outdone, the American Tobacco Company began a marketing campaign to attract more women smokers to its brand, Lucky Strike. WWII saw the greatest increase in sales ever. Savvy marketers sought to move in on the soldiers’ desire for cigarettes, often sending free packages overseas, knowing the addictive nature would guarantee a large group of new customers.
As the tobacco companies battled for supremacy in the lucrative cigarette market, evidence of negative health effects beyond addiction were coming to light. A link to lung cancer was established during the 1950s. As a response, manufacturers created new cigarettes with filters and reduced tar in an effort to keep sales up.
As the decades rolled by, increasing evidence of the harmful effects of smoking increased. Tar was shown to cause tumors in mice and was blamed for the increased incidence of lung cancer despite the filters and lower tar levels of cigarettes. As early as 1964, tobacco companies were aware of the danger of radioactive elements in cigarettes. In 1977 Phillip Morris made the connection between the increasing use of superphosphate fertilizers and radioactive polonium in cigarettes. The unstable atoms are picked up by the tobacco plant grown in soil using chemical phosphate fertilizers then dispersed into the lungs when the tobacco is smoked. Powerful cancer-causing alpha particles are emitted deep within the lungs. Lung cancer rates increased from the 1930 level of only 4 per 100,000 annually to the number one killing cancer by 1980, at 72 per 100,000. It was no coincidence that during this same time period the use of superphosphate fertilizers vastly increased in the United States.
Regulation of the tobacco industry’s advertising began in the mid-1960s. In 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report on the health effects of tobacco, and shortly later warnings were required on cigarette packs. Television ads were stopped in the United States in 1971, six years after they were banned in Britain. Tobacco companies, seeing a threat to their profits, began diversifying and dropping the word tobacco from their names.
The last decades of the 20th century saw the proliferation of tobacco-related legal actions and the start of tobacco bans. First banned on airplane flights, the bans continue today in city after city, state after state. At the same time, tobacco companies actively seek new markets in developing countries to increase sales floundering in the United States. Today, half of American tobacco company sales are to Asian countries.
Increasing pressure on tobacco companies and broad anti-smoking campaigns continue to diminish the number of sales of cigarettes in the United States.