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Article: Cigarettes
- Article from:
- Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Cigarettes
Description
Farmers were harvesting tobacco crops eight thousand years ago. Its uses since that time have ranged from weather forecasting, appetite suppression, and pain relief, to the ceremonial smoking of the peace pipe and recreational use. Although tobacco was smoked and chewed in the United States back in the days of Columbus, it was not until the 1880s that smoking cigarettes became a widespread custom. At its peak in 1965, 52% of all adult men and 32% of all adult women in the United States routinely smoked. By the year 2001, smoking rates in the United States had decreased to 25.5% in men, and 21.3% in women.
The potential adverse health effects of smoking were ...