Tobacco smoking

A woman smoking a cigarette, the most common method of tobacco smoking
Aztec women are handed flowers and smoking tubes before eating at a banquet, Florentine Codex, 16th century.
Gentlemen Smoking and Playing Backgammon in an Interior by Dirck Hals, 1627
Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, as shown on U.S. patent 238,640
A lengthy study conducted in order to establish the strong association necessary for legislative action (US cigarette consumption per person blue, male lung cancer rate brown)
Tendu Patta (Leaf) collection for Beedi industries
A graph that shows the efficiency of smoking as a way to absorb nicotine compared to other forms of intake.
Sigmund Freud, whose doctor assisted his suicide because of oral cancer caused by smoking
Common adverse effects of tobacco smoking. The more common effects are in bold face.
Skull with a burning cigarette, by Vincent van Gogh.
An enclosed smoking area in a Japanese train station. Notice the air vent on the roof.

Practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the smoke that is produced.

- Tobacco smoking
A woman smoking a cigarette, the most common method of tobacco smoking

500 related topics

Relevance
The medical students in Jakarta demonstrate against tobacco a day before World No Tobacco Day, at Bundaran Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Indonesia, May 30, 2010.

Tobacco control

The medical students in Jakarta demonstrate against tobacco a day before World No Tobacco Day, at Bundaran Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Indonesia, May 30, 2010.
Tobacco control activists in Mumbai, 2009

Tobacco control is a field of international public health science, policy and practice dedicated to addressing tobacco use and thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality it causes.

A chest X-ray showing a tumor in the lung (marked by arrow)

Lung cancer

Malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung.

Malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung.

A chest X-ray showing a tumor in the lung (marked by arrow)
Relationship between cigarette consumption per person (blue) and male lung cancer rates (dark yellow) in the US over the century
Risk of death from lung cancer is strongly correlated with smoking.
CT scan showing a cancerous tumor in the left lung
Primary pulmonary sarcoma in an asymptomatic 72-year-old male
Pie chart showing incidences of NSCLCs as compared to SCLCs shown at right, with fractions of smokers versus nonsmokers shown for each type
Cross section of a human lung: The white area in the upper lobe is cancer; the black areas are discoloration due to smoking.
Pneumonectomy specimen containing a squamous-cell carcinoma, seen as a white area near the bronchi
Brachytherapy (internal radiotherapy) for lung cancer given via the airway
Monoclonal antibodies used in the treatment of NSCLC and their mechanism of action https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373
The main treatment arms of phase 3 clinical trials providing immunotherapy in the first line for patients with NSCLC https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373
Overall survival in NSCLC patients treated with protocols incorporating immunotherapy in the first line for advanced or metastatic disease. Nasser NJ, Gorenberg M, Agbarya A. Pharmaceuticals 2020, 13(11), 373;
Lung cancer, incidence, mortality, and survival, England 1971–2011
Stage IA and IB lung cancer
Stage IIA lung cancer
Stage IIB lung cancer
One option for stage IIB lung cancer, with T2b; but if tumor is within 2 cm of the carina, this is stage 3
Stage IIIA lung cancer
Stage IIIA lung cancer, if there is one feature from the list on each side
Stage IIIA lung cancer
Stage IIIB lung cancer
Stage IIIB lung cancer
Stage IV lung cancer

The vast majority (85%) of cases of lung cancer are due to long-term tobacco smoking.

A cigar with a semi-airtight storage tube and a double guillotine-style cutter

Cigar

A cigar with a semi-airtight storage tube and a double guillotine-style cutter
Harry Nelson Pillsbury smoking a cigar
Indigenous tobacco pipe on display at the regional museum in San Andrés Tuxtla
Inside an Ybor City cigar factory c. 1920
Hand rolling cigars and relevant artifacts, Ybor City Museum State Park display, Tampa, Florida
An aged tobacco leaf being examined
Cigar makers in Puerto Rico, c. 1942
Vendor rolling cigars at the Eyipantla Falls in San Andrés Tuxtla, Mexico
Cigars (top to bottom) by H. Upmann, Montecristo, Macanudo, Romeo y Julieta
A Tuscan cigar
Cigar cases from the Te Amo and Sihuapan manufacturers in Mexico
Arturo Fuente cigar boxes at 2005 Tampa Cigar Heritage Festival. The Montesino cigars are also produced by Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.
Darker wrappers reflect tobacco type, age, and greater fermentation
Long-leaf filler as used in a hand-rolled cigar (slightly crumbled during cutting)
Short or chopped filler
World's largest cigar at the Tobacco and Matchstick Museum in Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden
The parejo is the easiest and least expensive common cigar shape to produce
Cohiba Mini and Dannemann Moods cigarillos
A double guillotine-style cutter, used for cutting the tip of a cigar, next a hand-rolled H. Upmann Coronas Major cigar. The "Made in Cuba" label (see Cuban cigar) is visible on the lower tube
Illustration with photographs of tobacco leaves infested by Lasioderma serricorne (tobacco beetles), from Runner, G. A., The tobacco beetle (1919), Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Biodiversity Heritage Library
A cigar case made of crocodile skin with sterling silver appointments bearing a Birmingham hallmark for 1904
A cigar holder stood on end
Display of various cigar cases with prices in a cigar store in Amsterdam, Netherlands

A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked.

Tobacco flakes, sliced from pressed plugs

Tobacco

Common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants.

Common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants.

Tobacco flakes, sliced from pressed plugs
Tobacco drying kiln in Myrtleford, Victoria, Australia, 2018. This kiln was built in 1957, and moved to Rotary Park in 2000. Kilns of this structure were made from the early 1930s through to the late 1960s.
Basma tobacco leaves drying in the sun at Pomak village in Xanthi, Greece
William Michael Harnett (American, 1848–1892), Still Life with Three Castles Tobacco, 1880, Brooklyn Museum.
The earliest depiction of a European man smoking, from Tobacco by Anthony Chute, 1595.
An Indian man smoking tobacco on hookah, Rajasthan, India.
An illustration from Frederick William Fairholt's Tobacco, its History and Association, 1859
Tobacco plant and tobacco leaf from the Deli plantations in Sumatra, 1905
Nicotine is the compound responsible for the addictive nature of tobacco use.
Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) flower, leaves, and buds
Illustration with photographs of tobacco leaves infested by Lasioderma serricorne (tobacco beetles), from Runner, G. A., The tobacco beetle (1919), Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Biodiversity Heritage Library
Tobacco plants growing in a field in Intercourse, Pennsylvania.
Tobacco barn in Simsbury, Connecticut used for air curing of shade tobacco
Sun-cured tobacco, Bastam, Iran
Tobacco production, 2018
Tobacco production in Portuguese Timor in the 1930s
Tobacco plantation, Pinar del Río, Cuba
Tobacco harvesting, Viñales Valley, Cuba

Dried tobacco leaves are mainly used for smoking in cigarettes and cigars, as well as pipes and shishas.

A filtered cigarette

Cigarette

Narrow cylinder containing burnable material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking.

Narrow cylinder containing burnable material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking.

A filtered cigarette
An electronic cigarette
A reproduction of a carving from the temple at Palenque, Mexico, depicting a Maya deity using a smoking tube
Francisco Goya's La Cometa, depicting a (foreground left) man smoking an early quasicigarette
A 1942 ad encourages women to smoke Camel brand cigarettes.
Diagram of a cigarette
Leones Africanos brand cigarettes from the mid-20th century, part of the permanent collection of the Museo del Objeto del Objeto
A discarded cigarette butt, lying on dirty snow
Various types of electronic cigarettes.
Artistas brand cigarette package of Mexico from the Museo del Objeto del Objeto collection
Tabak-Trafik in Vienna: Since January 1, 2007, all cigarette machines in Austria must attempt to verify a customer's age by requiring the insertion of a debit card or mobile phone verification.
Simple molecular representation of cellulose acetate with one of the acetate groups on the cellulose backbone shown by the red circle
Discarded Newport cigarettes packs found in Olneyville, Rhode Island - 2008
Chemical hydrolysis of cellulose acetate
The chemical structure change of cellulose into glucose
A cigarette disposal canister, encouraging the public to dispose of their cigarettes properly
A Woolworths supermarket cigarette counter in New South Wales, Australia: In January 2011, Australia prohibited the display of cigarettes in retail outlets countrywide.
Cigarette salespeople in Jakarta, Indonesia

An electronic cigarette is a handheld battery-powered vaporizer that simulates smoking by providing some of the behavioral aspects of smoking, including the hand-to-mouth action of smoking, but without combusting tobacco.

Tobacco smoke in an Irish pub before a smoking ban came into effect on March 29, 2004

Tobacco smoke

Tobacco smoke in an Irish pub before a smoking ban came into effect on March 29, 2004

Tobacco smoke is a sooty aerosol produced by the incomplete combustion of tobacco during the smoking of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

A woman smoking a tobacco cigarette, the most common method of smoking

Smoking

Practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream.

Practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream.

A woman smoking a tobacco cigarette, the most common method of smoking
A man smoking cannabis in Kolkata, India
A woman smoking crack cocaine
Aztec women are handed flowers and smoking tubes before eating at a banquet, Florentine Codex, 1500
A Persian girl smoking by Muhammad Qasim, 17th century.
Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, as shown on U.S. patent 238,640
An illustration of an opium den on the cover of Le Petit Journal, 5 July 1903
A lengthy study conducted in order to establish the strong association necessary for legislative action (US cigarette consumption per person blue, male lung cancer rate green)
An elaborately decorated pipe
A diagram of the human body showing some of the diseases caused by smoking
A graph that shows the efficiency of smoking as a way to absorb nicotine compared to other forms of intake
Sigmund Freud, whose doctor assisted with his suicide because of oral cancer caused by smoking
Prevalence of daily smoking in 2012
The share adults who smoke any tobacco product on a daily or non-daily basis in 2016.
An Apothecary Smoking in an Interior by Adriaen van Ostade, oil on panel, 1646
Skull with a Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh, oil on canvas, 1885
Film star and iconic smoker Humphrey Bogart
The cover of My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke (1896) by J.M. Barrie, otherwise best known for his play Peter Pan
Share of deaths from smoking, 2017<ref>{{cite web |title=Share of deaths from smoking |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-deaths-smoking |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>
The number of deaths attributed to smoking per 100,000 people in 2017<ref>{{cite web |title=Death rate from smoking |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-smoking?tab=map |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>
Average price of a pack of 20 cigarettes, measured in international dollars in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title=Average price of a pack of cigarettes |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-price-of-a-pack-of-cigarettes |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>
Taxes as a share of cigarette price, 2014<ref>{{cite web |title=Taxes as a share of cigarette price |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/taxes-as-share-of-cigarette-price |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>
Types of bans on tobacco advertising, 2014<ref>{{cite web |title=Enforcement of bans on tobacco advertising |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/enforcement-of-bans-on-tobacco-advertising |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>
Support to help quit tobacco use, 2014<ref>{{cite web |title=Support to help quit tobacco use |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/support-to-help-to-quit-tobacco-use |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>

Diseases related to tobacco smoking have been shown to kill approximately half of long-term smokers when compared to average mortality rates faced by non-smokers.

Oral cancer on the side of the tongue, a common site along with the floor of the mouth

Oral cancer

Cancer of the lining of the lips, mouth, or upper throat.

Cancer of the lining of the lips, mouth, or upper throat.

Oral cancer on the side of the tongue, a common site along with the floor of the mouth
Swelling of the right neck from the spread of oral cancer.
Ulceration on the left lower lip caused by cancer
Stall selling betel quid
Oral leukoplakia (white patch) on the left tongue. Proven to be severe dysplasia on biopsy
A large squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue as seen on CT imaging
Histopathologic appearance of a poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma specimen. Hematoxylin-eosin stain. p16 positive, EBV negative
Spread of cancer beyond the capsule of a lymph node (ENE+).
Post-operative image after removal of oral cancer with part of the mandible (feeding tube in nose)
Common scar line after cervical lymph node dissection
Radiation treatment
Deaths from mouth and oropharynx cancers per million people in 2012
A beagle with oral cancer.

Risk factors include tobacco and alcohol use.

Advanced centrilobular emphysema showing total lobule involvement on the left side

Emphysema

Lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large.

Lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large.

Advanced centrilobular emphysema showing total lobule involvement on the left side
Diagram of aveoli with emphysema
CT scan of bullous emphysema
Stained lung tissue from end-stage emphysema.
A large bulla and a smaller bleb illustrated
Giovanni Battista Morgagni, who recorded one of the earliest descriptions of emphysema in 1769

Emphysema usually affects the middle aged or older population because it takes time to develop with the effects of tobacco smoking, and other risk factors.

Section of a lung showing centrilobular emphysema, with enlarged airspaces in the centre of a lobule usually caused by smoking and a major feature of COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation.

Type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation.

Section of a lung showing centrilobular emphysema, with enlarged airspaces in the centre of a lobule usually caused by smoking and a major feature of COPD
Signs and symptoms of stages of COPD.
Access to clean fuel and clean cooking facilities as of 2016.
Normal lungs shown in upper diagram. Lungs damaged by COPD in lower diagram with an inset showing a cross-section of bronchioles blocked by mucus, and damaged alveoli.
Micrograph showing emphysema (left – large empty spaces) and lung tissue with relative preserved alveoli (right).
A person blowing into a spirometer. Smaller handheld devices are available for office use.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths per million persons in 2012
Giovanni Battista Morgagni, who made one of the earliest recorded descriptions of emphysema in 1769
alt=A black and white image, with a small white heart in the middle and large black lungs around it|Chest X-ray demonstrating severe COPD: Note the small heart size in comparison to the lungs.
A lateral chest X-ray of a person with emphysema: Note the barrel chest and flat diaphragm.
Lung bulla as seen on chest X-ray in a person with severe COPD
A severe case of bullous emphysema
Axial CT image of the lung of a person with end-stage bullous emphysema
Very severe emphysema with lung cancer on the left (CT scan)

The most common cause of COPD is tobacco smoking.