Short answers, pulled from the story.
The World Health Organization estimated that smoking killed over seven million smokers worldwide in 2023, along with 1.6 million non-smokers who died from passive smoking. Diseases related to tobacco smoking kill roughly half of all long-term smokers compared to the average mortality of non-smokers.
Smoking can be dated as early as 5000 BCE, originally tied to shamanistic rituals. Many ancient civilizations, including the Babylonian and Chinese, burnt incense as part of religious rites, and smoking later spread worldwide after the European exploration of the Americas.
In 1612, six years after the settlement of Jamestown, John Rolfe was credited as the first settler to successfully grow tobacco as a cash crop. The word nicotine comes from Jean Nicot, a Frenchman who introduced tobacco to France in 1560.
Inhaled smoke diffuses through the lungs' alveoli, which cover over 70 square meters, passing into the pulmonary vein, the heart and then the brain in less than one second of the first inhalation. In tobacco, the alkaloid nicotine stimulates the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain.
The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, between the four largest US tobacco companies and the Attorneys General of 46 states, restricted certain tobacco advertising and required payments for health compensation. It became the largest civil settlement in United States history.
Smoking is declining. In the year 2000-32.7% of the global population smoked, and by 2020 that had fallen to 22.7%. It remains more prevalent among males, with 36.7% of males over 15 smoking compared to 7.8% of females over 15.
Tobacco smoke contains over 5,000 identified chemicals, of which 98 have specific toxicological properties. Research identified seven leading carcinogens, including acrolein, formaldehyde, acrylonitrile, 1,3-butadiene, acetaldehyde, ethylene oxide and isoprene, all of which damage DNA.