Реферат: Title Of Paper Tobacco And Western

Title Of Paper : Tobacco And Western Culture Essay, Research Paper

Grade Received on Report : 89

Essay 1: Tobacco and Western Culture

The use of tobacco dates back to the 17th century. The primary reason for its beginning

was purely economic at first. It later became apparent to researchers over the decades that tobacco was

more than just a commodity to be traded for economic gain. It was actually a drug, nicotine, which

developed into physical dependency and had adverse side effects as people began to live longer. Further

research at the social level, revealed its social impact on the western culture.

It didn’t take long before early traders began to realize the economic benefits of trading

tobacco as a primary cash crop. Its known influences were completely overlooked to maintain the desired

income and trade benefits. In western culture, early settlers, saw tobacco as a primary source of support for

the family. It was entirely possible to grow tobacco and live a very good lifestyle. During the early years,

tobacco was not seen as a bad thing. Instead, it was actually a way of life. As time passed, govermental

agencies also began to see the economic benefits produced by the tobacco industry. Taxing the crop

became very lucrative and later resulted in subsidizing the farmers as needed to maintain taxation levels.

The advent of production cigarrettes soon opened doors for manufacturers which hadn’t existed before. A

cheap and easy method of providing tobacco users a manageable product soon led to widespread use in the

western world. This attitude soon began to chang!

e, however, as researchers began publishing reports on the ill effects of smoking and tobacco use.

Tobacco lost a lot of its social influence when people began to understand its physical

effects. Tobacco use was linked with birth defects in pregnant women. Lung cancer was directly linked to

smoking in 1950 by the Cancer Control Department in the New York State Health department. It became

very clear that the past opposition to smoking and tobacco use was substantiated. It had also become clear

that smokers were in a group alone from the rest of society. Just as other groups grew and shrank with the

times, so would the smokers. Nicotine had been discovered to be the dependency factor in tobacco and

soon ranked a classification with other social drugs like alcohol and caffeine. Its use was seen to be just as

severe as these and warranted just as much focus in the social arena. This didn’t stop people from using

tobacco. The reasons for tobacco use had already become more complex than just physically damaging.

Tobacco use had grown to be a social instrument. It can be easily proven that people