Tobacco Trivia

Things you never knew about Tobacco

• Tobacco is a Cash Crop. Cash Crops are those that are planted just for the purpose of selling or for profit. Other cash crops are coffee, spices, cotton and jute.

• The English word tobacco originates from the Spanish word "tabaco"

• Tobacco was considered as a ‘Gift from Creator’ – hence used for ceremonial purposes in Native America

• Tobacco was used in different forms to cure certain illnesses such as asthma, earaches, bowel problems, fever, sore eyes, depression and insect bites

• Tobacco was initially seen in the Americas and spread throughout the World with the European colonization.

• Tobacco production was the reason why slavery flourished in the American colonies

• German doctors first found a link between tobacco and lung cancer· The first Modern Antitobacco campaign was in Nazi Germany.

• Adolf Hitler was a heavy smoker in his early life but once he quit smoking, he personally encouraged his close friends to quit offering a gold watch to any in his inner circle who would.

• The word nicotine is derived from Frenchman named Jean Nicot who introduced tobacco to France in 1560.

• In India, tobacco was used as and in dentifrices, the most common being tobacco toothpaste and tooth powder (lal dant manjan).

• The 1992 amendment to India's Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 barred manufacturers from using tobacco as an ingredient in any toothpaste or toothpowder.

• Australia is the first country to introduce brand-free plain cigarette packaging with health warnings covering 90 and 70% of back and front packaging. All packs and all brands have to use a bland olive green that researchers determined to be the least attractive colour.

• Bhutan is the only country in the world where tobacco sales are illegal.

• The first virus ever discovered was the Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Beijerinck, in 1898, was the first to call 'VIRUS', the pathogen that caused the tobacco mosaic.

• Nick O’ Teen is a cigarette themed villain in the DC Comic universe that tries to trick children into smoking cigarettes and is an enemy of Superman.

• Smoking in India has been known since at least 2000 BC when cannabis was smoked and is first mentioned in the Atharvaveda.

• Tobacco was introduced by the Portuguese in the 17^th century.

• Kerala is the first state in India to ban smoking in public places in 1999.

• The anti-smoking mascot for Kanagawa, Japan, is Suwanzo, an elephant with a cigarette for a trunk and a smoke-hating swan on its head.