Tobacco smoking is the practice of smoking tobacco and inhaling tobacco smoke. 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.
Smoking bans, or smoke-free laws, are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, that prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and other public spaces. Legislation may also define smoking as more generally being the carrying or possessing of any lit tobacco product.
The American Heart Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. Originally formed in New York City in 1924 as the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease, it is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The American Heart Association is a national voluntary health agency.
Passive smoking is the inhalation of smoke, called second-hand smoke (SHS), or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by persons other than the intended "active" smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke enters an environment, causing its inhalation by people within that environment. Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke causes disease, disability, and death. The health risks of second-hand smoke are a matter of scientific consensus. These risks have been a major motivation for smoke-free laws in workplaces and indoor public places, including restaurants, bars and night clubs, as well as some open public spaces.
World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed around the world every year on 31 May. It is intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption around the globe. The day is further intended to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to more than 7 million deaths each year worldwide, including 890,000 of which are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) created World No Tobacco Day in 1987. In the past twenty one years, the day has been met with both enthusiasm and resistance around the globe from governments, public health organizations, smokers, growers, and the tobacco industry.
Tobacco package warning messages are warning messages that appear on the packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products concerning their health effects. They have been implemented in an effort to enhance the public's awareness of the harmful effects of smoking. In general, warnings used in different countries try to emphasize the same messages. Warnings for some countries are listed below. Such warnings have been required in tobacco advertising for many years.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is the name of a number of autonomous pressure groups (charities) that seek to publicize the risks associated with tobacco smoking and campaign for greater restrictions on cigarette and tobacco sales.
Tobacco use has predominantly negative effects on human health and concern about health effects of tobacco has a long history. Research has focused primarily on cigarette tobacco smoking.
Sidestream smoke is smoke which goes into the air directly from a burning cigarette, cigar, or smoking pipe. Sidestream smoke is the main component of second-hand smoke (SHS), also known as Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) or passive smoking. The chemical constituents of sidestream smoke are different from those of directly inhaled ("mainstream") smoke. Sidestream smoke has been classified as a Class A carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Tobacco control is a field of international public health science, policy and practice dedicated to addressing tobacco use and thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality it causes. Tobacco control is a priority area for the World Health Organization (WHO), through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. References to a tobacco control movement may have either positive or negative connotations, both briefly covered here.
Judith Longstaff Mackay, SBS, OBE, JP, FRCP (Edin), FRCP (Lon) is a British-born and Hong Kong–based medical doctor and international tobacco control advocate who has led a campaign against tobacco in Asia from 1984 onwards, campaigning for tax increases to discourage youth smoking, for the creation of smoke-free areas, and against tobacco promotion. Her main interests are tobacco in low-income countries, women and tobacco, and challenging the transnational tobacco companies.
With gender-targeted marketing, including packaging and slogans, and promotion of women smoking in movies and popular TV shows, the tobacco industry was able to increase the percent of women smoking. In the 1980s, tobacco industries were made to have the surgeon general's warning printed on each packaging of the tobacco products. This slowed the rate of women smoking but later slightly increased after the advertisements started to look more present day and more appealing packaging, that appealed to the younger generation. In more recent times, cigarette smoking has been banned from public places and will continue to help decrease smoking rates in the United States. Cigarette smoking has serious health effects.
Smoking in China is prevalent, as the People's Republic of China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco: there are 350 million Chinese smokers, and China produces 42% of the world's cigarettes. The China National Tobacco Corporation is by sales the largest single manufacturer of tobacco products in the world and boasts a monopoly in Mainland China generating between 7 and 10% of government revenue. Within the Chinese guanxi system, tobacco is still a ubiquitous gift acceptable on any occasion, particularly outside urban areas. Tobacco control legislation does exist, but public enforcement is rare to non-existent outside the most highly internationalized cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing. Outside the mainland however, enforcement is strong in the Hong Kong special administrative region. Furthermore, outside the largest cities in China, smoking is considered socially acceptable anywhere at any time, even if it is technically illegal.
Garfield Mahood is a Canadian non-smokers' rights activist. He was the long-time Executive Director of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association (NSRA) and its sister charity, the Smoking and Health Action Foundation (SHAF), since soon after their creation in 1974.
The Non-Smokers' Rights Association (NSRA) is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to fighting tobacco usage. It was founded in Toronto by nurse Rosalee Berlin, and quickly evolved into an international leader on the issues of tobacco control, especially tobacco advertising, tobacco sponsorship, and tobacco packaging.
The use of tobacco products in Egypt is widespread. It is estimated that approximately twenty percent of the population uses tobacco products daily. Cigarettes are the most common form of tobacco consumption in Egypt, with an estimated twenty billion cigarettes smoked annually in the country. After cigarettes, shisha water-pipes are the most common form of tobacco consumption. Many Egyptians are not fully aware of the health risks of using a water-pipe and many believe it to be less harmful than cigarettes.
Smoking in Iceland is banned in restaurants, cafés, bars and night clubs as of June 2007. A large majority of Icelanders approve of the ban. At the time the ban went into effect, almost one in four Icelandic people were smokers.
The Global Smokefree Partnership is a multipartner initiative formed to promote effective smokefree air policies worldwide. The Partnership works by helping practitioners and advocates of smokefree policies.
The scientific community in United States and Europe are primarily concerned with the possible effect of electronic cigarette use on public health. There is concern among public health experts that e-cigarettes could renormalize smoking, weaken measures to control tobacco, and serve as a gateway for smoking among youth. The public health community is divided over whether to support e-cigarettes, because their safety and efficacy for quitting smoking is unclear. Many in the public health community acknowledge the potential for their quitting smoking and decreasing harm benefits, but there remains a concern over their long-term safety and potential for a new era of users to get addicted to nicotine and then tobacco. There is concern among tobacco control academics and advocates that prevalent universal vaping "will bring its own distinct but as yet unknown health risks in the same way tobacco smoking did, as a result of chronic exposure", among other things.
Tobacco 21 is a national campaign aimed at raising the minimum legal age (MLA) for tobacco and nicotine sales in the United States to 21. The Tobacco 21 campaign is produced and funded by the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation, a public health nonprofit organization established in 1996. Tobacco 21 produces online content to promote anti-tobacco messages and helps communities around the United States raise the tobacco and nicotine sales age to 21.
