Tobacco: A Reference Handbook

Tobacco addresses the many interrelated controversies surrounding the historical and current use of tobacco and presents a clear, objective, and thorough treatment of this contentious public health and legal issue. The American Indians valued tobacco as a wonder drug. When Rodrigo de Jerez, who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his maiden voyage of 1492, returned to Spain with tobacco, he was accused of associating with Satan and imprisoned when his compatriots saw smoke coming out of his nose. This book covers everything from the history of tobacco to health and social issues such as targeting children. Biographical sketches of key personalities associated with tobacco range from Thomas Edison, who refused to hire anybody who smoked cigarettes, to Jean Nicot, the French Ambassador to Portugal in the mid-1500s, from whose name the word nicotine is derived. This title takes the reader through the myriad of issues that make up the tobacco debate in a clear and unbiased way. A chronology of developments in the history of tobacco use from 1570, when Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and England were already growing tobacco, to the March 27, 2000 legal decision awarding $10 million to a woman who had smoked for 25 years despite warning labels on cigarette packaging A selection of primary source documents from the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, tobacco companies, and antitobacco activists