Did you think that smoking is something new? Frankly speaking, tobacco smoking has been around for more than just a couple of years.
In fact - it has been around for millennia! Most historians estimate that people started to smoke as early as 5000 - 3000 BC! Yes, that's about 5000 - 7000 years ago, and that should tell you just a little about how long out species has been puffing away! Originally, incense was burnt as part and parcel of various rituals.
It still is to this very date.
Slowly but surely, the practice of smoking tobacco for pleasure began to catch on however, and once it did there was really no stopping it.
Cigarettes only came much later really, and initially many people used to smoke through 'smoking tubes', 'hookahs', and other such apparatus.
Needless to say, in the early days of tobacco smoking, there was really no worry about the health aspect of it all.
People simply hadn't made the link between cigarettes and health problems and would not do so until very recently.
As a matter of fact, at some points in history, tobacco has been considered medicinal - but then again, opium was too! While there has been some opposition to smoking over the years, primarily by religious bodies such as the Church, it was only in the 1920s that German scientists actually managed to make the link between smoking and lung cancer.
It may surprise you to know that the Nazi's even had an anti-tobacco movement that unfortunately fell as they did after the war.
It was only in the 1950s when the health aspect truly emerged again, and since then people have found it hard to ignore the fact that smoking is definitely bad for your health.
Also, since that point in time the consumption of cigarettes has steadily been dropping, especially in Western countries.
That being said, there are still quite a lot of heavy smokers around - and smoking is by no means 'dead'! All things said and done, while many people in history smoked due to ignorance of its ill effects, nowadays there is practically no one who can claim the same.
So if you're smoking, that means that you're doing so despite the fact that you know it is bad for you - and while you may want to quit, you're definitely going to find that harder than you might've first imagined.
In fact - it has been around for millennia! Most historians estimate that people started to smoke as early as 5000 - 3000 BC! Yes, that's about 5000 - 7000 years ago, and that should tell you just a little about how long out species has been puffing away! Originally, incense was burnt as part and parcel of various rituals.
It still is to this very date.
Slowly but surely, the practice of smoking tobacco for pleasure began to catch on however, and once it did there was really no stopping it.
Cigarettes only came much later really, and initially many people used to smoke through 'smoking tubes', 'hookahs', and other such apparatus.
Needless to say, in the early days of tobacco smoking, there was really no worry about the health aspect of it all.
People simply hadn't made the link between cigarettes and health problems and would not do so until very recently.
As a matter of fact, at some points in history, tobacco has been considered medicinal - but then again, opium was too! While there has been some opposition to smoking over the years, primarily by religious bodies such as the Church, it was only in the 1920s that German scientists actually managed to make the link between smoking and lung cancer.
It may surprise you to know that the Nazi's even had an anti-tobacco movement that unfortunately fell as they did after the war.
It was only in the 1950s when the health aspect truly emerged again, and since then people have found it hard to ignore the fact that smoking is definitely bad for your health.
Also, since that point in time the consumption of cigarettes has steadily been dropping, especially in Western countries.
That being said, there are still quite a lot of heavy smokers around - and smoking is by no means 'dead'! All things said and done, while many people in history smoked due to ignorance of its ill effects, nowadays there is practically no one who can claim the same.
So if you're smoking, that means that you're doing so despite the fact that you know it is bad for you - and while you may want to quit, you're definitely going to find that harder than you might've first imagined.