Fun Facts
1. Tobacco is one of few crops entering the world trade
specifically on a leaf basis.
2. Tobacco is the most grown plant in the world that is not used
for food.
3. It is essential to many countries' financial and economic
policies.
4. It is consumed by smoking, inhaling, or chewing and is known
to be a habit forming narcotic. Despite the attempts to ban
tobacco, its consumption steadily continues to move forward.
5. Historically known to have some religious significance, it is
now known not only to pose a threat to our health, but also be
quite beneficial in the medicinal world.
6. In 1828 two chemistry students were the first ones successful in extracting the main active substance in tobacco and called it nicotine.
7. In the 1920’s a premium pack of cigarettes like Camels cost 15 cents per pack, and the cheap brands like Wings cost 25 cents for two packs. Today cigarettes are up to $7.00 a pack and still rising which is a long shot from what they started out as.
8. Over 15 billion cigarettes are sold each day!
9. Nicotine, the drug found in tobacco, is known to be as addictive as heroin or cocaine.
10. Of the people that regularly use tobacco, 70% to 90% are
addicted to nicotine.
11. When a regular smoker stops getting nicotine, the withdrawal symptoms include: depression, insomnia, irritability, anxiety, decreased heart rate, increased appetite, weight gain and craving for nicotine.
12. Every 8 seconds, someone dies from tobacco.
13. The average tax on a pack of cigarettes in the United States is $1.45.
13. In 2007 Ocean Conservancy commenced their international coastal cleanup and picked up 1,971,551 cigarette butts which are the most common debris collected.
Tobacco is not the highly cultivated plant it once was, used for medicinal purposes. Instead, tobacco has entered the category of "entertainment" and I am not just referring to smoking in general......No, I am talking about pipe smoking contests! Yes, you heard it, pipe smoking contests. So if you want to catch a little bit of the action and watch a video on how it all works, click here!
Logan Van Hoof, April 2011