A beedi (also spelled bidi [1] or biri [2] ) is a thin cigarette or mini-cigar filled with tobacco flake and commonly wrapped in a tendu ( Diospyros melanoxylon ) [3] or Piliostigma racemosum [4] leaf tied with a string or adhesive at one end. It originates from the Indian subcontinent. [5] [6] The name is derived from the Marwari word beeda—a mixture of betel nuts, herbs, and spices wrapped in a leaf. [7] It is a traditional method of tobacco use throughout South Asia and parts of the Middle East, [6] where beedies are popular [2] and inexpensive. [8] In India, beedi consumption outpaces conventional cigarettes, accounting for 48% of all Indian tobacco consumption in 2008. [2]
Beedies were invented after Indian tobacco cultivation began in the late 17th century. Tobacco workers were the first to create them by taking leftover tobacco and rolling it in leaves. [9]
The commercial Indian beedi industry saw rapid growth during the 1930s [10] probably driven by an expansion of tobacco cultivation at the time [11] but also helped by Gandhi's support of Indian industry and Indian products. [12] [13] Perhaps due to this, educated classes in India grew to prefer beedies to cigarettes [9] although this is no longer the case. [14] Muslim leaders, calling cigarettes foreign products, have also endorsed beedies at times. [15]
By the middle of the 20th century, beedi manufacture had grown into a highly competitive industry. [9] This stage of commercial production—at the height of the beedi's popularity[ citation needed ]—saw the creation of many new beedi brands [9] as well as beedi factories employing upwards of one hundred, primarily male, beedi rollers. [10]
Factory-based beedi production declined as a result of increased regulation during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, [11] and beedi-making became a cottage industry with a home-based women workforce predominantly employed only in the beedi rolling. [11] In contrast, males continue to be employed in other aspects of beedi production. [11]
Beedi smoking tends to be associated with a lower social standing, [14] as these tobacco-filled leaves are inexpensive when compared to regular cigarettes. [8] Those with a high social standing who do smoke beedies often do so out of the public eye; however, the cultural trend is changing. [14]
Over 3 million Indians are employed in the manufacture of beedies, [16] [17] a cottage industry that is typically done by women in their homes. [18] [19] Analysis of bidi industry in India found that in spite of increase in profits worker wages declined and female workers were paid substantially less than male workers. [20]
Workers roll an average of 500–1000 beedies per day, handling 225–450 grams (8–15+3⁄4 oz) of tobacco flake. [21] Handling tobacco and inhaling its dust is an occupational hazard for beedi workers as an increased level of chromosome aberrations was found in a scientific study. [21]
The production of beedies is also popular in Bangladesh. According to the 2014 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor [22] published by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, the informal sector in these countries employs underage children in the production of beedies "in response to consumer preferences".[ citation needed ]
Tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon) leaves make excellent wrappers, and the success of the beedi is due, in part, to this leaf. [9] The leaves are in abundance shortly after the tobacco crop is cured and so are ready to be used in beedi manufacture. [9] Collected in the summer and made into bundles, the leaves are dried in the sun for three to six days before being used as wrappers. [3]
Beedies, unlike cigarettes, must be drawn frequently to keep them lit, and doing so requires effort. [3]
In the United States, beedies are treated like conventional cigarettes. They are taxed at the same rates, [6] are required to have a tax stamp, and must carry the Surgeon General's warning. [6] However, a study done in San Francisco showed that about four in ten packs of beedies did not contain the required warning label and seven in ten did not carry the tax stamp. [6] 2006 statistics on tobacco usage show that 2.9% of high school students in the United States take part in tobacco smoking compared to 1.4% of those aged 18 to 24. [23] Some beedies are flavoured. [3] Both Canada [24] and the US [25] have banned flavoured cigarettes.
Beedis are currently legal in the UK and are subject to the same taxation as cigarettes. One must be aged 18 or over to purchase them. [26]
Beedies deliver more nicotine, [27] carbon monoxide, [28] and tar [28] and carry a greater risk of oral cancers [5] than conventional cigarettes. As with many other types of smoking, beedies increase the risk of certain kinds of cancers, heart disease, and lung disease. [28] They may also be more harmful than other forms of tobacco consumption. [29]
Frequency of ventilatory abnormalities was highest in the cigarette smokers. A lower prevalence of chronic bronchitis and abnormal ventilatory measurements in beedi smokers, as compared with cigarette smokers, was thought to be primarily due to low total consumption of tobacco. Some added influence of smoke produced by burning of the wrapper leaf and type of tobacco used in beedies could not be ruled out. [30]
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used in some countries.
A cigar is a tobacco product made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of shapes and sizes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder leaf which holds the filler together, and a wrapper leaf, for appearance and flavor, which is often the highest quality leaf used. Often there will be a cigar band printed with the cigar manufacturer's logo. Modern cigars can come with two or more, highlighting special qualities such as age and origin of the tobaccos used.
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opposite end. Cigarette smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption. The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette, but the word is sometimes used to refer to other substances, such as a cannabis cigarette or an herbal cigarette. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its usually smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping, which is typically white. Most modern cigarettes are filtered, although this does not make the smoke inhaled from them contain fewer carcinogens and harmful chemicals.
Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the resulting smoke. The smoke may be inhaled, as is done with cigarettes, or simply released from the mouth, as is generally done with pipes and cigars. The practice is believed to have begun as early as 5000–3000 BC in Mesoamerica and South America. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 17th century by European colonists, where it followed common trade routes. The practice encountered criticism from its first import into the Western world onwards but embedded itself in certain strata of a number of societies before becoming widespread upon the introduction of automated cigarette-rolling apparatus.
A hookah, shisha, or waterpipe is a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco, flavored tobacco, or sometimes cannabis, hashish and opium. The smoke is passed through a water basin—often glass-based—before inhalation.
Smoking bans, or smoke-free laws, are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, that prohibit tobacco smoking in certain spaces. The spaces most commonly affected by smoking bans are indoor workplaces and buildings open to the public such as restaurants, bars, office buildings, schools, retail stores, hospitals, libraries, transport facilities, and government buildings, in addition to public transport vehicles such as aircraft, buses, watercraft, and trains. However, laws may also prohibit smoking in outdoor areas such as parks, beaches, pedestrian plazas, college and hospital campuses, and within a certain distance from the entrance to a building, and in some cases, private vehicles and multi-unit residences.
Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called passive smoke, secondhand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by individuals other than the active smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the surrounding atmosphere as an aerosol pollutant, which leads to its inhalation by nearby bystanders within the same environment. Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke causes many of the same diseases caused by active tobacco smoking, although to a lower prevalence due to the reduced concentration of smoke that enters the airway. The health risks of secondhand smoke are a matter of scientific consensus, and have been a major motivation for smoking bans in workplaces and indoor venues, including restaurants, bars and night clubs, as well as some open public spaces.
Kretek are unfiltered cigarettes of Indonesian origin, made with a blend of tobacco, cloves, and other flavors. The word "kretek" itself is an onomatopoetic term for the crackling sound of burning cloves.
Diospyros melanoxylon, the Coromandel ebony or East Indian ebony, is a species of flowering tree in the family Ebenaceae native to India and Sri Lanka; it has a hard, dry bark. Its common name derives from Coromandel, the coast of southeastern India. Locally it is known as temburini or by its Hindi name tendu. In Odisha, Jharkhand, and Assam, it is known as kendu. In Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana it is known as tuniki. The leaves can be wrapped around tobacco to create the Indian beedi, which has outsold conventional cigarettes in India. The olive-green fruit of the tree is edible.
Tobacco products, especially when smoked or used orally, have negative effects on human health, and concerns about these effects have existed for a long time. Research has focused primarily on cigarette smoking.
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have been rolled with a small rectangle of paper into an elongated cylinder called a cigarette. Other forms of smoking include the use of a smoking pipe or a bong.
Flavored tobacco products — tobacco products with added flavorings — include types of cigarettes, cigarillos and cigars, hookahs and hookah tobacco, various types of smokeless tobacco, and more recently electronic cigarettes. Flavored tobacco products are especially popular with youth and have therefore become targets of regulation in several countries.
This article contains a list of tobacco cultivars and varieties, as well as unique preparations of the tobacco leaf involving particular methods of processing the plant.
The cultivation of tobacco usually takes place annually. The tobacco is germinated in cold frames or hotbeds and then transplanted to the field until it matures. It is grown in warm climates with rich, well-drained soil. About 4.2 million hectares of tobacco were under cultivation worldwide in 2000, yielding over seven million tonnes of tobacco.
A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers was a historic first advertisement in a campaign run by major American tobacco companies on January 4, 1954, to create doubt by disputing recent scientific studies linking smoking cigarettes to lung cancer and other dangerous health effects.
The history of smoking dates back to as early as 5000 BC in the Americas in shamanistic rituals. With the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century, the consumption, cultivation, and trading of tobacco quickly spread. The modernization of farming equipment and manufacturing increased the availability of cigarettes following the reconstruction era in the United States. Mass production quickly expanded the scope of consumption, which grew until the scientific controversies of the 1960s, and condemnation in the 1980s.
Bollywood, the Hindi part of the Indian film industry, is the largest film producer in India, and one of the largest film production centres in the world. Producing nearly 1000 films, selling 3.1 billion cinema tickets and grossing close to ten billion dollars a year, Bollywood exerts an extreme stronghold on the Indian culture and influences daily approximately 15 million people who go to see Bollywood films. One such example of the influence of Bollywood culture is tobacco use. India currently has nearly 250 million tobacco users.
There are approximately 57 million smokers in Indonesia, among a population of 273 million people. Around 63% of men and 5% of women report smoking, equating to 34% of the population. The majority, 88% of Indonesian smokers, use clove-flavoured kreteks. Kretek manufacturers directly employ over 180,000 people in Indonesia and an additional 10 million indirectly. Indonesia is the fifth largest tobacco market in the world, and in 2008 over 165 billion cigarettes were sold in the country.
Smoking in India is one of the oldest industries and provides livelihood to more than five million people directly and indirectly. India is the second-largest producer of tobacco in the world. Smoking has been known since at least 2000 BC when cannabis was smoked and is first mentioned in the Atharvaveda. Fumigation (dhupa) and fire offerings (homa) are prescribed in the Ayurveda for medical purposes and have been practiced for at least 3,000 years while smoking, dhumrapana has been practiced for at least 2,000 years. Tobacco was introduced to India in the 17th century. It later merged with existing practices of smoking.