Tobacco facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tobacco |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Flowering Nicotiana tabacum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Division: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Family: | |
| Genus: |
Nicotiana
|
| Species | |
|
Numerous, see text |
|
Tobacco is a special plant that belongs to the nightshade family. You can find it mostly in North America and South America. People often dry the leaves of the tobacco plant. These dried leaves are then smoked in cigars, cigarettes, or pipes. Some people also chew tobacco or sniff it through their nose. Tobacco has a strong chemical called nicotine. Nicotine is very addictive, which means it's super hard for people to stop using tobacco once they start.
Contents
A Look Back in Time: Tobacco's History
Long ago, Native Americans used tobacco before Europeans came to America. When Europeans arrived, they learned about smoking tobacco. They took it back to Europe, where it quickly became very popular. In those days, people usually smoked tobacco in a pipe.
Europeans who moved to America started growing tobacco on farms. They wanted to sell it in Europe. Growing tobacco became a big reason why many people were brought from Africa to work on farms in America. In 1610, a European man named John Rolfe came to the American state of Virginia. He started a tobacco farm and became very rich. Rolfe was the first farmer to grow nicotiana tabacum. This is the type of tobacco that most people smoke today. He also married Pocahontas, a famous Native American woman. She later went to live in London.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco made farmers very wealthy. Towns quickly grew in the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. By 1883, about one-third of all tax money in the United States came from tobacco.
In 1864, the first American factory opened to make cigarettes. It produced 20 million cigarettes every year. By 1964, cigarettes had over 500 extra chemicals added to them. Even today, companies that make tobacco are not required by law to list all these ingredients.
How Tobacco Affects Your Health
People who use tobacco, especially those who smoke, can get many serious illnesses. These illnesses are often deadly. Some examples include cancer, strokes, heart disease, and lung disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States says that using tobacco is the "single most important preventable risk to human health." This means it's a major cause of early death around the world. There are over 4,800 chemicals in tobacco, including arsenic. About 64 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer.
Where is Tobacco Grown?
Many countries around the world grow tobacco. Here is a list of the top ten countries that produced the most tobacco in 2005. The amounts are shown in million metric tons.
| Top Ten Tobacco Producers - 2005 (million metric ton) |
|
|---|---|
 China |
2.51 |
 Brazil |
0.88 |
 India |
0.60 |
 United States |
0.29 |
 Indonesia |
0.14 |
 Turkey |
0.14 |
 Greece |
0.12 |
 Argentina |
0.12 |
 Italy |
0.11 |
 Pakistan |
0.08 |
| World Total | 6.38 |
| Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) |
|
See also
In Spanish: Tabaco para niños
