Cigarettes as we know them today had their beginnings with the discovery of the New World in 1492.

1. The Sustained Demise of the Traditional Cigarette
Cigarettes as we know them today had their beginnings with the discovery of the
New World in 1492. While Native Americans had been using tobacco in one form or
another for many centuries it was the first time that Western explorers had
encountered this exotic plant. Soon thereafter, tobacco plantations began to spring
up across the American colonies, exporting their crop to the European market.
However, due to the lack of mass production of cigarettes, smoking remained
relatively uncommon until the turn of the twentieth century.
Throughout the twentieth century smoking became increasingly common, moving
from being the preserve of the rich and the privileged to being prolific throughout the
lower classes. In the early twentieth century smoking cigarettes was seen as
something sophisticated and classy. Of course at this point the health risks of
cigarettes were not widely known. In the USA the peak rate of cigarette consumption
was reached in 1965, at a time when an estimated 50% of men and 33% of women
smoked cigarettes. Since this point the number of cigarettes smoked per year in the
Western world has steadily declined. However, in developing countries the number
of smokers still continues to climb.
The first research to be conducted which suggested a health risk caused by the
smoking of cigarettes was conducted by German scientists under the Nazi regime.
This led to the first anti-tobacco movement and a link being drawn between smoking
and lung cancer. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century the dangers of
smoking began to be widely known and increasingly publicised. Before long,
governments began to institute mandatory heath warnings on cigarette packets and
in recent years many of these have been accompanied by graphical labels.
However, due to the addictive qualities of nicotine which is present within cigarettes
many smokers have found the habit difficult to quit.
Due to the increasing awareness of the health risks posed by smoking cigarettes,
many businesses and institutions have sought to create an alternative to the
traditional cigarette. These alternatives have taken many different forms including
the unsuccessful ‘cancerless cigarette’ but by far the most successful in the late
twentieth century was the nicotine patch. These patches slowly release nicotine into
the body, substituting for the addictive substance usually found within cigarettes.
However, this is where the similarities between smoking a cigarette and using a
nicotine patch end.
In recent years a more comprehensive substitution has been developed in the form
of electronic cigarettes. E-cigs, as they are also known, produce a similar amount of
nicotine to that of traditional cigarettes but with only a slight odour that does not
linger and cling to skin and clothes alike. Moreover, E-cigs do not contain the myriad
of harmful chemicals found in traditional cigarettes. Unlike other cigarette
replacements, however, E-cigs fulfil the smokers need to smoke a cigarette. They
offer the smoker an object to hold and from which to inhale just as in a traditional
cigarette, but without the extensive dangers.
You can find out more about electronic cigarettes at http://www.vikingecigs.co.uk/

2. Viking Ecigs
Website: http://www.vikingecigs.co.uk/
Email: sales@vikingecigs.co.uk
Telephone: 08445 888 510