Quit tobacco. The whole history of nicotine use (5 photos)

N+1, together with the “On the Move” media project, released excellent material about how the most harmful habit of the 20th century developed: from ceremonial smoking among Indians to the emergence of alternative methods of consuming nicotine. For those who want to learn all the most interesting things from the article, we have compiled a 5-minute summary.

The times when tobacco was considered a cure for all diseases and the privilege of the richest are long gone. Today, everyone has been aware since childhood of the harm that “poison sticks” cause.

First tobacco smoke. How it was?

The history of the bad habit begins already in the 5th–3rd centuries BC. The leaves of plants of the genus Nicotiana were smoked and chewed by the Aztecs, Mayans and other tribes living in what is now the United States. In 2012, archaeologists discovered a more than 1,000-year-old ceramic flask with traces of nicotine inside with the inscription “y-otoot ’u-may”—“house of tobacco”—in Mexico.





In this flask, decorated with the inscription “Yo-‘OTOT-ti ‘u-MAY,” scientists found traces of nicotine.

The Indians smoked during rituals, used tobacco as an offering, and laid it under the nearest large stone for protection when a storm approached. He was shoved into all sorts of places to treat asthma, ear pain, bowel problems, fever, eye inflammation, burns and even depression. To stimulate breathing, for example, enemas with tobacco smoke were used.

Arrival in Europe

When the Spaniards came to colonize America, the locals had long realized that smoking could be done purely for pleasure. In 1492, the Indians presented tobacco as a gift to Christopher Columbus. The smoking mixture came to Europe on merchant ships around the end of the 15th century.

The first “home farm” of tobacco appeared in 1612 in Britain in the state of Virginia. A migrant farmer successfully crossed a local tobacco variety with one imported from Bermuda. Success provided the colony with a stable source of income: their hybrid became a major export product.

Thus, tobacco became one of the main cash crops of America, and the demand for it was constantly growing even in Europe. To keep up with him, young dark farmers began to grow tobacco on the same soil every year and quickly depleted the land. This prompted European colonialists to move to the west of the country and, accordingly, to expand tobacco production.

We can thank the French Ambassador in Lisbon, Jean Nicot, for the popularity of smoking in Europe. The most famous substance contained in tobacco, nicotine, is named after him. In 1560, Nico sent samples of tobacco to France. The ambassador used various parts of the plant as a cure for headaches, and also sent his potion to doctors and stars of the time (for example, Catherine de Medici) to prove the medicinal value of tobacco. He succeeded in this by the 70–80s of the 16th century. For example, the Spanish doctor Nicolas Monardes listed 36 diseases that can be cured with tobacco.



An image of tobacco by Monardes.

Soon the public got tired of tobacco smoke and began to turn to kings, kings and rulers. Despite anti-tobacco initiatives from governments around the world, smoking became a popular habit for Europeans in the 17th century.





Model of James Bohnsack's cigarette rolling machine.

Tobacco Innovation

Why did tobacco become so popular by the beginning of the 20th century? The answer is simple: the invention of the safe match, the transition to mass production, and the appearance of aggressive cigarette advertising. Successful PR by tobacco companies became an act of protest against the scientific community's obsession with ideas about the dangers of smoking.



In the 1950s, the first studies were published that proved that smoking can cause respiratory and heart diseases. Then tobacco companies hired bribed doctors to advertise and offered a technical solution to the problem—filter cigarettes.

The eminent American manager Leo Burnett came up with an advertising strategy that completely ignored the issue of health hazards. To avoid the male stereotype that all filter cigarettes are for women, and if you smoke with a filter, you are not a man, Philip Morris decided to use representatives of purely male professions in advertising. These were sea captains, athletes and gunsmiths, but the most successful was the image of a cowboy. Burnett got the idea in 1949 when he saw photographs of Texas cowboys in LIFE magazine. It's ironic that the four actors who played cowboys in the cigarette commercialslater died from lung diseases.

Edward Bernays. Sigmund Freud's nephew, working for cigarette manufacturer Lucky Strike, came up with another ingenious campaign. About the benefits of smoking in the fight against excess weight. He owns the famous advertising slogan: Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet (“Reach for Lucky, not for sweets”).



Shot by photographer Nicholas Muray for the Lucky Strike advertising campaign, 1936. Edward Bernays even managed to force smoking on feminists! Paid socialites took part in the Easter Sunday procession on April 1, 1929, and marched down Fifth Avenue with lit cigarettes. Women stated that they were lighting “torches of freedom” and protesting against the inhumane attitude of men towards women. The photos spread across all newspapers and cemented the association between freedom of expression and smoking.

The first studies on the dangers of smoking

The first serious studies on the dangers of tobacco appeared in the middle of the 20th century. Before this, everyone calmly tarred and perceived it as an integral part of their lives. Tobacco companies were hit especially hard by the reports of US Surgeon General Luther Terry and British physician Sir Richard Doll.

The latter found out that all his patients with cancer had a common habit - they loved to smoke. Doll concluded that this is what is associated with lung cancer. A doctor has determined that quitting smoking at age 50 can cut your risk of premature death in half, and at age 30 it can almost eliminate it.

Nicotine Research

Nicotine was first isolated from tobacco leaves in 1828. Since then, science has learned a lot about this substance. For example, the fact that an important factor that aggravates the negative consequences of nicotine use is the combustion of tobacco.

So, in 2016, those same British scientists published the report “Nicotine without smoking. Reducing health harm from tobacco consumption." The authors of the report told how to reduce the harm from smoking - they suggested electronic cigarettes as an alternative.

According to the FDA, smoking cessation can also be achieved through nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Gum and patches increase the likelihood of long-term smoking cessation by 50 to 70 percent. This does not increase the risk of cancer. After all, one of the main causes of cancer is carcinogens contained in cigarette smoke. It contains more than 7,000 chemicals, more than 70 of which are associated with the development of malignant tumors. Professor Michael Russell wrote: “People smoke for nicotine, but die from tobacco tar.”

Despite the obvious harm of cigarettes, the volume of the tobacco market is growing steadily. According to known data, the bulk of smokers (about 80 percent) live in low- or middle-income countries, and every tenth pack of cigarettes is sold illegally.

Nicotine 2.0

Since the invention of filter cigarettes, companies have tried to reduce the harm from smoking in different ways. They added menthol to cigarettes (which only increased the effect of nicotine on the brain) and paid attention to smoke-free products. The second idea was sound - when tobacco is burned, at least 250 known toxins and 70 carcinogens are formed. And nicotine itself is released even before combustion begins - at temperatures up to 220–350 °C.

Substitutes for cigarettes include ENDS, dry and moist snuff, vapes, snus and nicotine pouches (nikpacks). Moreover, snus and nicotine pouches are often confused.

Snus is wet tobacco powder that is placed between the gum and lip. The production and sale of snus in Russia and EU countries to minors is prohibited. And nikpacks are nicotine-containing packets without tobacco. Although they are also used - through placement under the lip - they do not contain tobacco-specific carcinogens - nitrosamines (TSNA).

They are actively used in Sweden as a means to combat smoking. Now there are about 5 percent of smokers in the country, while 20 percent of the country's citizens use alternatives daily - nickpacks and snus. Sweden ranks first in the European Union among countries in terms of “cleanliness” of smoking. Smoking levels have decreased, and the consumption of snus and nickpacks has increased.

It’s not just statistics that speak in favor of alternatives. The British company Biochromex conducted a systematic review of 123 scientific articles on cigarette smoking and the consumption of smoke-free products. Based on the results of the review, a rating of nicotine-containing products was compiled in descending order of harm. Cigarettes are at the top of the ranking, while e-cigarettes, snus and NRT are in the bottom positions.

Full list ↓

Regular cigarettes (Combustible cigarettes) - 100.00

Rolling tobacco (Cut tobacco) – 99.53

Cigarillos - 84.18

Western pipe tobacco – 75.72

Kaliana (Water pipe tobacco) – 54.95

Cigars - 41.10

Two types of chewing tobacco: Dipping tobacco and Chewing tobacco - 15.10 and 11.18 respectively

Electronic cigarettes (Heat-not-burn devices) - 3.38

Snus - 3.18

Electronic cigarettes - 0.24

Tobacco-free pouches - nickpacks (Non-tobacco pouches) - 0.22

Nicotine replacement therapy – 0.15

Non-nicotine product user – 0.00