ModernHealthJournal.com

Some people would say that something with a reported eight-thousand-year history has run its course and it's time to go. In the case of tobacco use this might very well be true. Yes, tobacco use has been around since approximately six thousand B.C. and is believed to have been first used by natives in Central and South America. To be clear, the history seems to have begun with the use of the plant for medicinal and ceremonial purposes and it is unclear just when it was first used for smoking.

Still, by the time the first explorers from Europe showed up it was being used for what one might say was recreational smoking. The record shows that at the time of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the new world he and his crew were offered tobacco as a gift. And, he and his men were apparently so excited by this that they started buying the tobacco and brought it back to Europe with them.

Once in Europe, tobacco became a much sought after substance because a strong belief developed that it could cure just about anything from bad breath to cancer. Well, clearly, a lot of those beliefs have been proven to be untrue but the popularity and demand for tobacco only increased in size and strength as its use spread across Europe and all around the world.

Later, during World War I, the popularity of Turkish style cigarettes really took off and the age of what we have come to know as cigarette smoking began in earnest as millions of millions of service men brought the habit home with them and helped to spread it nearly everywhere.

Obviously, the following decades of the twentieth century saw a sharp rise in problems associated with smoking and other tobacco use and a growing awareness of the dangers of smoking as well as the large and sustained effort by tobacco companies to hide those dangers and the addictive qualities from consumers, the government and advocacy groups seeking to expose it all.

The Cool Factor

Looking back at all of the history of smoking and the eventual disclosure of how its multitude of negative effects on health have come to light over the last half century, it is hard to imagine just how many people all over the world continue to take up smoking. One of the key issues has always been what many would call "The Cool Factor" due to the draw that cigarette smoking has those who wish to appear cool or even rebellious. This kind of draw has been one of, if not, the key reason so many people try smoking in the first place. And, once they get over the noxious smoke that, at first, would not be appealing they begin to acquire a taste for it and, eventually, they will likely begin to build up enough nicotine in their systems that they will then begin to experience symptoms of nicotine withdrawal if they do not keep smoking in order to feed the addictive beast that is growing in their bloodstream.

The New Cool

Despite the draw to cigarettes attributed to people wanting to be seen as cool or rebellious there was a marked shift in the number of minors who took up smoking mainly due to a lot of education outreach, new regulations and a plain and simple recognition that cigarette smoking was a dirty habit that did not really add a mysterious quality but rather one that made them look less educated and of a lower class. This decrease in smoking among younger people, though a positive sign, has also led to another problem and that is the replacement of many outright tobacco products with other and, some would say, more modern systems of delivering nicotine to consumers in order to keep them coming back for more.

Smoking Versus Vaping

After all of the progress which had been made in recent decades in trying to get people to stop smoking cigarettes or using tobacco products in general, many stop smoking advocates were disappointed to see the introduction of what most people know as vaping products. For those who may not be all that familiar with these devices, they are essentially electronic cigarettes that use a heating coil to produce an inhalable vapor from an often-flavored nicotine capsule.

Although the research is far behind on these devices because they have not been around that long one thing that we do know is that there are studies which show that there are a number of negative health effects which can be brought on by vaping and many of them are quite similar to those experienced by tobacco users. Furthermore, the alarming rate of teens who are using the vaping products has risen sharply over the last few years.

To Smoke Or Not To Smoke

No one really questions whether smoking or other use of tobacco is bad for one's health but that hasn't kept million and millions of people from trying it or, even worse, becoming addicted to it. It should also be pointed out that, even though there has been a significant decline in the use of tobacco in many western and highly developed countries, the producers of these products have shifted their focus to other regions including the middle east and Asia.

But with the rapid rise of vaping, vaping products and specialty stores that sell them it is hard to see how smoking, vaping or any other use of products containing nicotine is likely to be sent into the dustbin of history.