ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Tobacco is an agricultural product, obtained from the leaves of plants of the genus Nicotiana, family Solanacee. It can be consumed, used as an insecticide as a nicotinic derivative and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, it is used in some drugs and has hemetic properties; more commonly it is used as a basic component of cigarettes and cigars, or sold bulk to be smoked in the pipe.

Tobacco has long been used as an enteogen in the Americas; however, at the time of the arrival of Europeans in North America, it quickly became popular, from a commercial point of view, as a recreational drug. This disclosure led to the development of the South American economy, parallel to the cultivation of cotton. After the American Civil War and the subsequent abolition of slavery, there was a change in demand and labor force, which allowed the development of cigarettes. This new product quickly led to the growth of tobacco industries, until scientific studies on the harmfulness of smoke products from the mid-20th century.

There are many species of tobacco plants, in the genus Nicotiana. The term "Nicotiana" (as well as nicotine) was introduced in honor of Jean Nicot, French ambassador to Portugal, who in 1559 sent a specimen of the plant, considering it a medicine, to the court of Catherine de' Medici.

Due to the dependency of nicotine, the intake of tobacco generates dependence (tabagism); the amount of absorption, frequency and speed of tobacco consumption is believed to be directly related to the biological force of dependence on nicotine. The use of tobacco is an activity that is practiced by about 1.1 billion people and up to one third of the world adult population. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that tobacco is the second cause of death in the world (after hypertension), but the first cause of avoidable death, and is estimated to cause almost 6 million deaths a year. Almost 80% of smokers in the world live in medium or low-income countries.

On 31 May of each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates World Day without tobacco, highlighting the risks of human health due to smoking and urging policies to reduce its consumption. The first World Day without tobacco was celebrated in 1987 to attract the attention of the world public on a very important cause of avoidable death.

Etymology
It is believed that the Spanish word tabaco derives from the Arawak language and in particular from the Caribbean dialect Taino (according to Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1552) referred with this term to a roll of leaves of the plant or to the tabago, a sort of 'Y' shaped pipe, used to aspire smoking in the nasal streets. Other sources argue that the term tobacco was used in the Spanish language to define medicinal herbs already