History

Tobacco: the story of a popular product that has become a public health problem

Discovered by Christopher Columbus and introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century, tobacco, a plant native to Central America, first experienced a craze on the Old Continent. Its use then spread rapidly throughout the world, despite questionable medicinal virtues. There are now 1.3 billion smokers worldwide, and its use is responsible for the deaths of 8 million people a year, including 1.2 million passive smokers. A look back at the history of tobacco and its consumption, which has become a public health problem.

Farmers work in a tobacco field in the western province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, February 26, 2008. © Ariana Cubillos / AP Photo

Text by: Nenad Tomic | Anoushka Notaras

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Tobacco - or cultivated tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) - is a plant native to Central America that would have been used by local people as early as the year one thousand BC. It owes its scientific name to Jean Nicot, the France ambassador to Portugal who, in the sixteenth century, brought tobacco powder to Queen Catherine de Medici to treat the migraines of her son Francis II. Historians have no certainty if the treatments had a positive effect, but tobacco enjoyed extraordinary popularity in France and the plant was nicknamed "Queen's Grass".

Global expansion

The world owes this popularity of tobacco to Christopher Columbus. As soon as America was discovered in 1492, he noticed that the Indians "smoke a plant in the form of a tube of rolled leaves," according to his logbook. The plant, which would have medicinal virtues, crossed the Atlantic towards Europe: in 1556, the French geographer André Thevet brought it back in his luggage to cultivate it in his garden in Angoulême. During the sixteenth century, tobacco use spread rapidly in Italy, England, Portugal, Germany, from the royal court in Vienna to Turkey, then to Asia and finally, to Africa. By the end of the century, tobacco was grown and used almost all over the world.

But in the seventeenth century, its therapeutic benefits are contested, including by the King of England James 1st. In the same spirit, Pope Urban VIII banned its use in 1642 under penalty of excommunication, denouncing "the disgusting moods that tobacco causes". In Russia, Tsar Michael Fedorovich blames smokers for the great fire that hit Moscow in 1650. It prohibits the use and trade of the plant under penalty of being sentenced to whipping, deportation to Siberia or having his lips cut off.

During the same period in Japan, smokers were condemned to slavery, in China to beheading and in Persia to the removal of the nose.

Profit first

Despite the bans, the popularity of tobacco was growing and the authorities realized that import duties could generate a significant profit for the state coffers. In England, King James 1st radically increases taxes: it is the first implementation of a tobacco tax that has become - and still remains today - an inexhaustible source of profits.

In France, Richelieu in turn created the tobacco tax in 1629. A few years later, he banned its free sale. In 1681, Colbert, Louis XIV's Minister of Finance, established the state monopoly on sales and production. It was not until the French Revolution of 1789 that this monopoly was abolished. But it was re-established in 1810 by Napoleon 1st, because of its profitability. This state monopoly will evolve during the twentieth century, in particular to adapt to the opening to competition induced by the European common market from 1967. The proven dangerousness of tobacco leads to the progressive restriction of the promotion of its use and the sale is controlled by the State via the tobacconists' network.

Smoking – a global scourge

It was not until the nineteenth century that the analysis of the chemical components of the plant began and its effects on health were established. Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, professor of chemistry at the Paris School of Medicine, discovers that tobacco contains a very toxic alkaloid: nicotine. He also notes that tobacco leaf harvesters are sometimes poisoned because nicotine passes through the skin.

The cigarette was invented in the first half of the nineteenth century and represents the fast and effective way to consume tobacco. Manufacturers are rubbing their hands of it, as manufacturing costs and selling price promise even more profits. This is the beginning of smoking. Quite quickly, in France, the French Association against Tobacco Abuse was created in 1868. The National Committee against Smoking will be known as a public utility a century later, in 1977.

In 1944, when American soldiers landed in Normandy, they introduced the French and Europeans to the blonde cigarette. This is the turning point in the history of smoking: American brands become ubiquitous throughout Europe. What's more, the blonde cigarette is becoming popular everywhere: men, women, of all social classes consume it.

In 1950, the cigarette with filter was invented. But at the same time, studies on toxicity and health harms are multiplying.

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In 2022, tax revenues from the sale of tobacco and cigarettes provided €17 billion in revenue to the French State (OFDT). Cigarettes are also a cause of environmental pollution: in France alone, 20,000 to 25,000 tons of cigarette butts end up in nature each year.

There is no longer any doubt about the effects of tobacco on human health: still in 2022, it is the cause of 75,000 deaths in France (Public Health France) and 8 million deaths worldwide, including about 1.2 million passive smokers involuntarily exposed to cigarette smoke (WHO).

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