HEALTH FIRST - QUIT SMOKING - THE GREAT INVESTMENT

It is definitely proven that smoking shorten life expectancy and is deadly dangerous. Smoking is a dangerous enemy of inactive smokers who move around in a smoking environment. Smoking cigarettes can cause negative effect on all the tissues in a human's body.

HISTORY OF TOBACCO

Tobacco is a product prepared from green leafy plant that is grown in warm climates. The plant is part of the genus Nicotiana and of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. While more than 70 species of tobacco are known, the chief commercial crop is Nicotiana tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used around the world.

Tobacco originates from South America, Old Mayas had known the plant. History says that an American Indian tribe named Huron established smoking in pursuance of religious rituals and significant events. Native Americans smoked tobacco through a pipe. They did not smoke every day.

Tobacco was discovered at the same time as America was discovered. First tobacco seeds arrived in Europe from province Tobacco (now Dominican Republic). Portugal was the first country to cultivate tobacco outside of America. Then it expanded to Spain, Africa, Asia and Australia. This new habit caused a wave of protest in some countries, which made Smoking, snuffing or chewing of tobacco prohibited and sometimes punished. For example excommunication from church, castration, cutting of nose and sometimes death penalty.

In spite of all the prohibitions, punishments and medical warnings, there were more and more smokers, tobacco was smuggled and secretly grown by so many to the points that changes had to be make. The selling of Tobacco as a business became very profitable for businessmen and the government. French king Philip V. approved "King's monopoly for growing of tobacco" in Cuba in 1717. The monopoly was canceled during the French revolution in 1817 and renewed again by Napoleon I. By 1859, Cuba already had 10,000 of tobacco plantations and 1,300 cigar factories.

In the U.S. Tobacco was the first crop grown for money in North America. In 1612 the settlers of the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia grew tobacco as a cash crop and as a result,Tobacco helped pay for the American Revolution against England.

By 1800's, many people had begun using small amounts of tobacco (on the average, people smoked about 40 cigarettes a year). At the beginning, all cigarettes were made by hand either by the smoker or in factories. The factory process consisted of hand rolling on a table, pasting, and hand packaging. In 1880, James A. Bonsack was granted a U.S. patent for a cigarette machine. Bonsack's cigarette machine made 120,000 cigarettes a day (today's machine makes 6 millions cigarettes a day). Shortly after that is established the American Tobacco Company ( the first tobacco company in the U.S.A).

In 1902 Philip Morris company came out with the Marlboro brand. A rapid advertising campaign of tobacco corporations began in the early 20th century. According to: Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, American Brands, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson, and Liggett & Myers; cigarette production was up to 300 billion a year by 1944.

In 1964 the Surgeon General of the U.S. wrote a report about the dangers of cigarette smoking. In 1965 the Congress of the U.S. passed the Cigarette Labelling and Advertising Act. It stated that every cigarette pack must have a warning label on its side stating "Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health."

As it becomes more difficult for tobacco companies to sell their products in the U.S., they are looking outside. U.S. tobacco companies are now growing tobacco in Africa, South America (Brazil and Paraguay), India, Pakistan, the Phillipines, Greece, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic. Fifty percent (50%) of salles of U.S. tobacco companies go to Asian countries, such as Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Taiwan.

EFFECT OF SMOKING

The thousands of specialized studies have proven how harmful the effects of smoking is on the human body. It is definitely proven that smoking shorten life expectancy and is deadly dangerous. Smoking is a dangerous enemy of inactive smokers who move around in a smoking environment.

Smoking cigarettes can cause negative effect on all the tissues in a human's body. Cancer has been proven to be the leading cause of death worldwide. Cancer is a generic term for a large group of diseases that can affect any part of the body. Other terms used are malignant tumors and neoplasms.

The latter process is referred to as metastasizing. Metastasis are the major cause of death from cancer.

Most common causes of cancer death from smoking are:

1. Bladder Cancer
2. Breast Cancer
3. Colon and Rectal Cancer
4. Endometrial Cancer
5. Esophageal Cancer
6. Kidney Cancer
7. Leukemia
8. Liver Cancer
9. Lung Cancer
10. Stomach Cancer

Some of the main known diseases caused by smoking cigarettes are:

1. Chronic diseases (chronic bronchitis)
2. Breast Cancer
3. Emphysema - rupture of air sacs)
4. Heart-vessel diseases
5. Gastric ulcers
6. Thrombosis (vessel necrosis, mainly in limbs)
7. Brain damage
8. Impotence
9. Periodontal disease
10. Autoimmune disease (excessive hair loss, eczema)

600 ingredients in cigarettes

There are about 600 ingredients in cigarettes that create more than 7,000 chemicals. At least 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer.

These chemicals are not only in tobacco smoke:

1. Acetone - polish remover
2. Acetic acid — hair deye
3. Ammonia — household cleaner
4. Arsenic — rat poison
5. Arsenic — rat poison
6. Benzene — rubber cement, gasoline
7. Butane — lighter
8. Cadmium - battery acid
9. Carbon monoxide — car exhaust fumes
10. Formaldehyde — embalming fluid
11. Hexamine — barbecue lighter fluid
12. Lead - batteries
13. Naphthalene — ingredient in mothballs
14. Methanol — rocket fuel
15. Nicotine — as an insecticide
16. Tar - for paving roads
17. Toluene — to manufacture paint
18. and more...