As the use of
tobacco became popular in Europe, some people became concerned
about its negative effects. One of the first was King James I of
Great Britain. In his 1604 treatise, A Counterblast to Tobacco,
King James observed that smoking was:
A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the Nose, harmful
to the brain, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the black
stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian
smoke of the pit that is bottomless.
The late-19th century invention of automated cigarette-making
machinery in the American South made possible mass production of
cigarettes at low cost, and cigarettes became elegant and
fashionable among society men as the Victorian era gave way to
the Edwardian. In 1912, American Dr. Isaac Adler was the first
to strongly suggest that lung cancer is related to smoking. In
1929, Fritz Lickint of Dresden, Germany, published a formal
statistical evidence of a lung cancer–tobacco link, based on a
study showing that lung cancer sufferers were likely to be
smokers. Lickint also argued that tobacco use was the best way
to explain the fact that lung cancer struck men four or five
times more often than women (since women smoked much less).
Prior to World War I, lung cancer was considered to be a rare
disease, which most physicians would never see during their
career. With the postwar rise in popularity of cigarette
smoking, however, came a virtual epidemic of lung cancer.
In 1950, Dr. Richard Doll published research in the British
Medical Journal showing a close link between smoking and lung
cancer. Four years later, in 1954 the British Doctors Study, a
study of some 40 thousand doctors over 20 years, confirmed the
suggestion, based on which the government issued advice that
smoking and lung cancer rates were related. The British Doctors
Study lasted till 2001, with result published every ten years
and final results published in 2004.
Health risks of smoking >>
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Tobacco smoking
Methods of smoking
Health effects
1.
Establishing a link between smoking and health effects
2. Health risks of smoking
2.1 Carcinogenicity
2.2 Effects on the heart
2.3 Smoker's attitudes
3. Passive smoking
4. Somatic and psychological effects
5. Mood and anxiety disorders
6. Health benefits of smoking
Effects of the habit and
industry on society
1. Effect on healthcare costs
2. Tobacco and other drugs
3. Advertising
4. Peer pressure
5. Parental smoking
6. Smoking in movies and television
7. The use of smoking to project an image
Religious views
on smoking Smoking cessation
Legal issues and
regulation
1. Age restrictions
2. Taxation
3. Restrictions on cigarette advertising
4. Package warnings
5. Smoking bans
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