Smoking Addiction

An important element of public health policy today is the matter of smoking addiction. Throughout history, tobacco consumption has been a big business. Today, while smoking continues, an additional important industry has developed around helping people to quit or stop smoking. This site presents information and resources about smoking addiction and means to quit smoking.

Origins of Smoking

Smoking may be defined as the process of intentionally inhaling the smoke from a burning substance into the lungs. In Western culture this substance is assumed to be tobacco. Tobacco is a “New World” plant. It was first smoked by Native Americans as part of rituals. It was then introduced to Western Europeans upon their arrival in the America’s. Western Europeans adopted the practice of tobacco smoking for its pleasurable effects, and from there the practice blossomed. Soon large plantations were producing the crop.

At that time the mechanisms for inhaling smoke into the lungs were primarily a pipe into which crushed tobacco leaves were placed and fired, or a cigar wherein tobacco leaves were encased within a cocoon of leaves. Though other forms of ingestion were introduced, most notably snuff, inhalation of the smoke from burning tobacco leaves was and remains the most popular.

Recent Smoking History

Smoking mechanisms changed little up until the early 20 th Century. Then, advances in manufacturing made possible the mass production of miniature cigars that substituted a paper wrapper for the traditional leaf. These new mini-cigars were and are called “cigarettes”.

The new cigarettes became almost ubiquitous during and following the Second World War. Packages of cigarettes were made available to U.S. servicemen at nominal or no charge. Cigarette smoking quickly became a habit with them; one that they continued following the war. Today, cigarettes are by far the major means by which people inhale tobacco smoke into their lungs.

Current Smoking Policies

Recent studies have shown the detrimental health effects of ingesting smoke into the lungs. This is true both for the smoker, and for anyone in the vicinity of the activity via second-hand smoke inhalation. As a resulting matter of public health policy laws, have been passed which restrict the places in which smoking is permitted. For these and other reasons, today there is a large number of people who either have or want to quit smoking.

On This Site

We here present information and resources regarding smoking addiction and means to stop smoking. This is organized among these pages:

Smoking Addiction interesting background information on nicotine and tobacco use.     Quit Smoking An overview of currently popular modalities to quite smoking and stop nicotine addiction.     Resources There are many great resources about smoking, nicotine, and addiction. Here are some of our favorites.

Additionally, throughout all the pages on this site you will find links to additional helpful information. We invite you to take advantage of them.