History and current status of smoking behavior

  Smoking originated more than 3,000 years ago in a ritual of the indigenous Indian tribes of South America, the priests put the dried leaves of a plant called “Tabaco” (i.e., tobacco) into a bamboo tube and lit it and passed it around in turn, and because of the addictive nature of tobacco, it became a habit of more and more people over time, and spread widely among the tribes, and then became a custom. In 1492, Columbus brought tobacco seeds and smoking methods back to Spain as a lifestyle fashion, and according to his reputation and appeal, the act of smoking quickly spread throughout Europe, and with the development of navigation and transportation, it spread throughout the world within a few decades, and was introduced to China in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.  According to figures released by the WHO, there are currently about 1.2 billion smokers worldwide. About 10 million people die each year due to smoking-related diseases, and according to this ratio, the 350 million smokers in China, the number of deaths caused by smoking is about 2.6 million each year, and the number exceeds the total number of deaths due to infectious diseases, tuberculosis, AIDS and accidents in China each year. If we do not vigorously promote smoking cessation now, and develop strong measures to strictly control the growth of the smoking population, by 2020 the annual number of deaths due to smoking will reach 20 million worldwide, and China will reach more than 5 million.  In recent years, although China has continued to publicize the dangers of smoking and has established regulations prohibiting smoking in hospitals, offices, conference rooms, public transportation, theaters and public entertainment venues, the results have not been very effective due to weak supervision and ineffective punishment. What is particularly alarming is that the smoking rate among women and adolescents has increased significantly in recent years and is trending toward a younger age. In addition, China’s passive smoking population of about 500 million, most of them are family members and colleagues of smokers, adding up to 800-900 million people damaged by tobacco poisoning in China, accounting for about 60% of the total population.