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The tobacco plant, first used by the native people of the Americas, [1] later came into use in Europe and in the rest of the world. Archaeological finds indicate that humans in the Americas began using tobacco as far back as 12,300 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously documented. [2] [3]
There is a reference to tobacco in a Persian poem dating from before 1536, but because of the lack of any corroborating sources, the authenticity of the source has been questioned. The next reliable eyewitness account of tobacco smoking is by a Spanish envoy in 1617, but by this time the practice was already deeply engrained in Persian society.
In the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year as of 2002. [10] The WHO in 2004 projected 58.8 million deaths to occur globally, from which 5.4 million are tobacco-attributed, and 4.9 million as of 2007. [13] As of 2002, 70% of the deaths are in developing countries. [13]
Tobacco was introduced around 1600 by French merchants in what today is modern-day Gambia and Senegal. At the same time, caravans from Morocco brought tobacco to the areas around Timbuktu, and the Portuguese brought the commodity (and the plant) to southern Africa, establishing the popularity of tobacco throughout all of Africa by the 1650s.
The most common today is by far the cigarette, consisting of a mild inhalant strain of tobacco in a tightly rolled tube of paper, usually manufactured industrially and including a filter, or hand-rolled with loose tobacco. Other popular smoking tools are various pipes and cigars.
Until the 1970s, most tobacco advertising was legal in the United States and most European nations. In the 1940s and 50s, tobacco was a major radio sponsor; in the 1950s and 60s, they became predominantly involved in television.
Alcohol causes 800,000 deaths across Europe each year but just a fraction of the population is aware of the risks, the WHO's Europe office said in a statement, based on a new survey.
An illustration from Frederick William Fairholt's Tobacco, its History and Association, 1859 Tobacco plant and tobacco leaf from the Deli plantations in Sumatra, 1905. Following the arrival of the Europeans to the Americas, tobacco became increasingly popular as a trade item.