Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first human to inhale the smoke of a burning plant did so around 5000 BCE to commune with the spirit world. This ancient practice dates back to 5000 BCE and laid the foundation for a global habit that would eventually claim over eight million lives annually.
John Rolfe successfully grew tobacco as a cash crop in 1612, six years after the settlement of Jamestown. This action transformed the struggling Virginia Company from a failed expedition into a global economic powerhouse that relied on the very plant that would eventually destroy its own creators.
Smoking produces a complex mixture of over 5,000 identified chemicals, 98 of which are known to have specific toxicological properties. The most dangerous of these are the seven most important carcinogens in tobacco smoke, including acrolein, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde, which cause DNA damage through crosslinks, chromosome deletions, and oxidative stress.
The United States Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health demonstrated the relationship between smoking and cancer in 1964. This report followed research by Richard Doll published in 1950 and the British Doctors Study which confirmed the link in 1954.
Russia leads as the top consumer of tobacco followed by Indonesia, Laos, Ukraine, Belarus, Greece, Jordan, and China. In these areas, smoking is considered modern and many of the strong adverse opinions that prevail in the West receive much less attention.