Tim Coyle
AMST 205
Project #5



Tobacco Smoking

          Over five hundred years ago the sailors of Columbus first noted the use of tobacco by Native Americans on the island of Cuba (Billings 32). This marked the introduction of tobacco to the civilized world, and it did not take very long before its use became popular everywhere. Experts believe that native inhabitants of the Americas first discovered ways to use tobacco, including smoking, as far back as the year 1 BC. The United States has been a major producer and user of tobacco since this country was founded. Basically, Americans love to smoke. They always have in the past, anyway, and some still do. However, in recent years the popularity of smoking has decreased sharply due to the discoveries of its harmful effects. The threat of addiction, lung cancer, emphysema, and other health problems has scared many people into quitting or caused them to never start.

          Back in the 1930's and 40's few people were yet aware of the dangers tobacco posed to their health, and a very significant portion of the population smoked. In 1939, Fortune magazine found that 53% of adult American males smoke, and that rises to 66% for adult males under forty years of age. The numbers for women were somewhat lower in comparison, but it can safely be said that a very large percentage of the country was smoking during this time period.

          Americans used a variety of methods to smoke tobacco back then including pipes, cigars, and the ever more popular cigarettes. Chewing tobacco was also quite prevalent, though not to the degree of smoking. The use of snuff tobacco, however, was extremely rare by this time. By and large most Americans in the 30's and 40's who were hooked on nicotine got it from cigarettes. The residents of Greenbelt , Maryland were not exceptions to any of this. Many of them were smokers just like the rest of the country, and cigarettes were the prefered form of tobacco use.


More About :

  Cigarettes

Smoking Etiquette

  Cigarette Advertising

  Works Cited/Bibliography


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