Quit Smoking For Good

We can blame it on that weary world traveler, Christopher Columbus. While visiting islands in Barbados, members of his crew noticed the native people smoking curious dried up leaves from a local plant. And so the first tobacco was introduced to the Western world. Tobacco was quickly adopted by the elite and the fashionable of the European nobility.

Cigarettes replace Pipes

The first cigarettes were believed to have been invented by a group of Egyptian solders. The story goes that after a particularly difficult battle, they as artillerymen had been rewarded with a pound or two of tobacco.

But since the only pipe between them was broken, they took to rolling the tobacco in the same paper they used to wrap their gunpowder for firing the cannon. And so roll your own cigarettes was started, which eventually became the most popular way to use tobacco.

Cigarette companies began the practice of placing “baseball” cards of popular players of the day inside packs of cigarettes to lure people into buying them. One player Honus Wagner requested that his card be removed since he disapproved of the practice and now this card, due to its rarity, is believed to worth over $500,000.

Smoking cigarettes was considered the height of fashion for most men during the early part of the last century. On the contrary, women who smoked were considered “fast” and with loose morals. But in 1927 The Lucky Strike company in an effort to boost sales introduced the phrase, “Reach for a Lucky, instead of a sweet” to tout cigarettes’ appetite suppressing effect. Sales made to teen girls skyrocketed.

Click Here For Fresh Quit - Stop Smoking In One Hour

The Philip Morris Company discovered that sales increase when they advertise their cigarettes using a “cowboy”. So was invented the “Marlboro Man”. Two of the most popular Marlboro Men were actors Wayne McLaren and David McLean. They both died of lung cancer in 1992 and 1995, respectively.

Negatives of Smoking Cigarettes

Very early on people became to suspect that cigarettes and smoking were addictive, it was not until 1964,  that then US Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, M.D. released a report that cigarette smoking  was the cause of lung cancer and caused several other life threatening lung diseases and may be “hazardous to your health”.

But it wasn’t until 1970 that the Surgeon General’s office came out with the warning that cigarette smoking was “dangerous”. And so began the battle to ban cigarette advertising in televised commercials in 1971.
Due to the addictive effects of nicotine the number of people smoking was decreasing. However, according to the World Health Organization, as many as one third of the male population still smoked. And it is thought that women smokers were not far behind.

Smoking Bans

Cigarette smoking has been banned in many private companies and public buildings in many places throughout the Western world. Still many people start smoking because of peer pressure and a desire to fit in or be cool.

Fashion is a still a passion for many people and despite the increase in the last few decades in cancer awareness, smoking cigarettes is still hot trend.

We all eventually stop smoking.  Why not do it while you’re still alive?