[edit] Popularization
Following the arrival of the Europeans, tobacco became increasingly popular as a trade item. It fostered the economy for the southern United States until it was replaced by cotton. However following the American civil war, a change in demand and a change in labor force allowed the inventor James Bonsack to create a machine which automated the production of cigarettes.
This increase in production allowed tremendous growth in the tobacco industry until the scientific revelations of the mid-1900s.
[edit] Contemporary
Following the scientific revelations of the mid-1900s, tobacco became condemned as a health hazard, which eventually came to encompass as a cause for cancer, and other respiratory and circulatory diseases. This led to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) which settled the lawsuit in exchange for a combination of yearly payments to the states and voluntary restrictions on advertising and marketing of tobacco products.
As the industry's downward tumble continued, in the 1990s Brown & Williamsons cross-bred a strain a tobacco to produce Y1. This strain of tobacco contained an unusually high amount of nicotine, nearly doubling its content from 3.2-3.5% to 6.5%. This prompted Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use this strain as evidence that tobacco companies were intentionally manipulating the nicotine content of cigarettes.
In 2003, in response to tobaccos growth in developing countries, the World Health Organization (WHO)[12] successfully rallied 168 countries to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The Convention is designed to push for effective legislation and its enforcement in all countries to reduce the harmful effects of tobacco. This led to the development of tobacco cessation products.