Tobacco

TOBACCO (Nicotiana), a dicotyledonous plant of the nightshade family, originating from tropical America, with up to 40 species; the most common are: common tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), which includes Virginia tobacco, and its variety Maryland tobacco; simpler varieties are provided by rustic or violet tobacco (Nicotiana rusticum); a decorative plant with white flowers is fragrant tobacco (Nicotiana affinis). The simple, entire-margined leaves of tobacco undergo special processing after ripening—they are sorted, subjected to wilting, fermentation, drying, after which they go to the factory where they are turned into various types of tobacco used for smoking (cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco), for snuffing and chewing. History. The homeland of tobacco is considered America. References by ancient authors (Herodotus, Plutarch, Dioscorides, Pliny) to inhaling smoke, smoking for achieving narcotic or therapeutic purposes do not refer to tobacco. Images on very ancient Chinese drawings of smoking pipes also cannot serve as proof of tobacco smoking. Europeans first became acquainted with tobacco upon the discovery of America (1492), when Columbus, among other gifts, was presented with dry tobacco leaves by the natives of Guanahani (Bahamas islands). When visiting the island of Cuba, Columbus's sailors observed the custom of smoking cigars that amazed them. With further acquaintance with tobacco, Europeans initially tried to use it only as a medicinal remedy. Gayo (University of Salamanca) in 1545 recommended smoking tobacco ground with mercury as a powerful remedy against syphilis. In the middle of the 16th century, not only leaves but also tobacco seeds began to be imported into Europe. The French ambassador in Lisbon, Nicot, treated various tumors, abscesses, skin diseases with tobacco; he sent tobacco seeds to Paris, where tobacco quickly took root in court and medical circles first as a medicinal, and then as a narcotic substance (hence the word nicotine). In the 16th-17th centuries, numerous severe poisonings from tobacco were observed when used as a medicinal remedy. The mass spread of tobacco in Europe as a narcotic substance dates back to the end of the 16th century. In 1586, Ralph Lane brought a group of former immigrants to England who had acquired the habit of smoking in America; they served as an example for the surrounding population. Smoking quickly spread in England, France, Holland and other European countries. In the early 17th century, attempts were made to cultivate tobacco in Alsace, the Palatinate, and even in Norway. From Europe, tobacco quickly spread throughout the globe, displacing local narcotics such as cocaine, pituri, etc., or being used along with them (opium, hashish). Soon the negative aspects of tobacco became apparent and attempts were made to combat it. Thus, in 1640, Pope Urban VIII issued a bull against tobacco, prohibiting its consumption in churches under threat of excommunication. The English King James I published a sharp pamphlet against smoking in 1603 and imposed a high duty on tobacco imported into England. The policy of European governments toward tobacco fluctuated, sometimes reaching prohibition (France, 1635), but mainly consisted of extracting profit through monopoly, duties, excise tax. Until the mid-19th century, smoking in public was prohibited in most European countries. In Russia, the government's attitude toward tobacco was initially sharply negative—for consuming tobacco, people were flogged and beaten with rods, noses were cut off, and even executions took place (decree of Tsar Michael, 1633); this was explained by considerations of fire protection for wooden cities, as well as the position of the clergy. Peter I allowed London merchants to import tobacco into Russia for a 'gift' of 15,000 pounds. Catherine II, when providing land for settlement of German colonists, obliged them to grow tobacco (in Ukraine, in Podolia, in Crimea). Cigarettes first appeared in Spain in the mid-19th century and soon largely displaced other forms of smoking (cigars, pipes). Snuffing and chewing tobacco almost went out of use by the end of the 19th century. Tobacco leaves contain numerous organic substances: alkaloids in combination with acids—nicotine, nicoteine, nicotinine, nicotelline, organic acids, protein substances, wood fibers, essential oils, fats, etc. When tobacco is smoked, dry distillation occurs and a series of products are formed that are inhaled by the smoker along with tobacco smoke; the most important of them are: nicotine, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, pyridine bases, nitrogen, acetic acid, hydrocyanic acid, etc. The main active substance of tobacco leaves and tobacco smoke is nicotine (see). In the picture of tobacco poisoning (smoking, ingestion per os, etc.), nicotine plays the main role. The main symptoms: restlessness, trembling, frequent, uncertain movements; nausea, dizziness, weakness; feeling of compression and warmth in the larynx, esophagus, stomach; with worsening condition—sharp pallor and cold sweat, vomiting that persistently repeats; severe headaches, noise in the ears, pupil constriction, gradual clouding of consciousness, stupor; attacks with screaming, convulsions, finally general inhibition and collapse. Death occurs from paralysis of respiration with phenomena of arrhythmia, sharp decrease in sensitivity, loss of consciousness, with dilated, sometimes uneven pupils. With a favorable outcome, sleep occurs, after which for several days there remains general malaise, headache and aversion to tobacco. In milder cases, the symptoms of tobacco poisoning resemble seasickness: nausea, dizziness, headache, facial pallor, cold sweat, trembling and weakness of limbs, shortness of breath, palpitations. The symptomatology of tobacco poisoning is mainly due to nicotine. The direct action of nicotine on the muscles of organs (heart) is expressed significantly weaker. The action of tobacco smoke is also explained by its other components (besides nicotine): pyridine bases cause irritation of mucous membranes—smokers are indebted to them for their morning cough, irritation of the throat, tongue, mucous membranes. Pyridine bases—volatile oily substances—were once considered the main harmful element of tobacco smoke (Eulenburg, Gautier). Experiments on smoking leaves of a number of plants not containing nicotine (Dixon and others) showed that after 20-30 minutes nausea, vomiting, dizziness, etc. are also caused, which is explained by the action of pyridine substances, as well as carbon monoxide (see). The latter (CO)—an inevitable by-product of the slow combustion of almost all plant substances—is contained in tobacco smoke in amounts up to 8%. Cigarette smoke contains from 0.5% to 1% CO, a pipe gives 1% and higher, and finally a cigar 6-8%, which approaches the CO content in 'coal gas' causing poisoning of coal miners. However, when entering the body, tobacco smoke is already strongly mixed with air, and the amount of CO inhaled by smokers is not so great. The degree of tobacco's effect on the body depends on the following reasons: 1) on the strength of tobacco, i.e., on its nicotine content, which ranges from 0.7% (expensive varieties) to 5-6% (cheap varieties); 2) on the dryness of tobacco—the higher it is, the more complete the decomposition of nicotine compounds contained in tobacco with organic acids and the more nicotine burns without entering the smoker's body; 3) on the density of the smoking unit—a cigarette or thin cigar, cooling better during combustion, give fewer poisonous products than a thick cigar. According to Marcelet, 1 g of tobacco smoked in a cigarette gives from 20 to 80 cm³ of carbon monoxide, in a pipe—53-109 cm³. The amount of unburned nicotine passing into tobacco smoke and absorbed by the smoker is of great importance; for cigarettes it is determined (Dixon) as 1/4 of the nicotine contained in tobacco, constituting in absolute numbers for one cigarette 2-3 mg of nicotine (80-120 mg of nicotine is undoubtedly a lethal dose for an unaccustomed human body). Other components of tobacco smoke, being poisonous in themselves (hydrocyanic acid, arsenic, methyl alcohol, etc.), are contained in it in relatively negligible amounts (for example, according to Lehmann in 20 cigarettes—40 mg of methyl alcohol). Tobacco smoking (and other forms of tobacco consumption) has great social-hygienic significance due to its enormous prevalence and serious effect on the body. The systems most affected by tobacco are the digestive, cardiovascular, and respiratory. In habitual smokers, decreased appetite, increased gastric secretion, dyspeptic phenomena are often observed from the digestive system; with abuse or intolerance to tobacco—phenomena of digestive catarrh or ulcer. The musculature of the digestive tract reacts to excitation, and then inhibition by nicotine of the nodes of the autonomic nervous system (parasympathetic part), first by delaying their automatic contractions, which after smoking ends, on the contrary, with their intensification; in view of the fact that the feeling of hunger in humans is largely connected with the said contractions of the stomach, then the decreased appetite in smokers is understandable.

With significant excitation of nerves, complete inhibition of the digestive canal occurs, with the exception of the stomach valves, which, on the contrary, sharply contract (spasm), causing food to be retained in the stomach (as in morphine dyspepsia). X-ray research (Danielopolu and others) showed that when smoking a cigar, after 15 minutes, the normal automatic contractions of the stomach cease, resuming only 3-5 minutes after smoking has stopped. By exciting the parasympathetic nervous system, tobacco (nicotine) enhances the secretion of the digestive canal glands, salivary and others, which explains the increased salivation during smoking (and as a reaction-dry mouth the next day). The enhancement of gastric secretion under the influence of nicotine has been experimentally proven in animals (Shaller by means of Heidenhain's fistula in dogs). Hence the increased acidity of the stomach in many smokers, acute gastroenteric catarrhs. Hurst considers that prolonged smoking contributes to the formation of ulcers of the duodenum; Wagner points out that abuse of tobacco can give a complete picture of ulcus duodeni both according to the patient's subjective complaints and according to X-ray data*. These clinical observations can be connected with the fact that ulcus ventriculi is considered (Bergmann, Westphal and others) a typical disease of vagotonics, and increased gastric acidity is attributed by Pavlov and others in some cases to parasympathetic hypertension. Hence the conclusion for the practical physician about the need to achieve cessation of smoking (especially excessive) in patients with catarrhal phenomena, suspicion of ulcers of the digestive tract, and increased gastric acidity. In the action of tobacco on the cardiovascular system, functional disorders of cardiac activity and organic lesions of the vessels should be distinguished. In the first, the following play a role: 1) excitation of the endings of the vagus nerve, followed by their inhibition; 2) excitation and then paralysis of the cardiac muscle and 3) constriction of small vessels. Symptoms: increased cardiac activity during smoking, gradually passing into habitual tachycardia. Nicolai and Staehelin, comparing the frequency of their pulse over two half-years with smoking and without it, found that the average number of beats in the first half-year was 7-8 more than in the second, i.e., without smoking, during which the pulse was measured daily several times and under various conditions. Similar experiments (Ajkman, Palmin and others) testify not only to an additional load on the heart in the form of 7-8 extra contractions per minute, but also to subjective signs of fatigue (palpitations, shortness of breath) and in connection with them, increased muscle fatigue in smokers, ascertained with the help of an ergograph. This fact, which is also associated with an increase in blood pressure in smokers (on average 8-20 mm of mercury), is taken into account by many smoking athletes who avoid tobacco during periods of intense physical exertion. In smokers, arrhythmia, angina-like pains in the heart area are also often observed, which resemble subjective sensations of angina pectoris but pass with the cessation of smoking. Many authors speak of organic lesions, of sclerosis of the coronary vessels of the heart, which has been confirmed for nicotine-treated animals on a large experimental material (Ucnard, Zhebrovsky and others). In relation to man, many authors hold the same view. Pawinski, for 2,000 cases of sclerosis of the coronary arteries, establishes smoking as the main cause of the disease in 42%. Thus, in many cases of heart diseases, one should persistently strive for patients to stop smoking, remembering, however, that in a severely weakened heart this should be done with a certain caution, since nicotine, being at first only a poison for the heart, with the years turns into a habitual excitant, 'without which it is difficult to do' (Berezovsky, Kravkov). Phenomena from the side of the heart are often accompanied by disturbances of respiration up to the phenomena of bronchial asthma. Disorders of respiration can also be independent due to the action of tobacco on the medulla oblongata and the smooth musculature of the bronchi; tobacco smoke, in particular CO, irritates the cilia of the epithelium with which the inner surface of the bronchi is lined. Spasm of the bronchioles, leading to cough with expectoration, often observed in vagotonics and used as an antidote to pilocarpine (and nicotine) - atropine and adrenaline, is also often found in smokers. These phenomena, as well as the action of tobacco on the cardiac and digestive systems, are associated with the more frequent occurrence of tuberculosis in smokers and tobacco workers. Research by Arnold, Guillain and Gy and others showed that tobacco had no therapeutic bactericidal effect on tuberculosis infection (on the contrary, experimental tuberculous rabbits died from nicotineization earlier than controls), although in relation to streptococci and staphylococci, the sharply bactericidal action of nicotine has been proven. Compared to the action of tobacco on the autonomic nervous system, its influence on the central nervous system is relatively small. Experiments show (Shcherbak, Pousse and others) that nicotine (and tobacco smoke), introduced into the animal's organism, in small doses excite, and in large doses paralyze the brain and spinal cord; with large doses, the endings of sensory, and then motor nerves, are also paralyzed. By causing convulsions in animals with electric current, they were much more easily obtained in animals that had previously inhaled tobacco smoke (Shcherbak). When nicotine is introduced (by any route) in animals, first a phase of excitation of the central nervous system with restlessness, clonic and tonic convulsions is observed, then a phase of depression with paralysis. Tobacco apparently has a positive effect on the so-called 'threshold of irritation' in humans. Mendenhall passed an electric current through a salt solution, into which the subjects immersed their fingers, and noted at what strength of current they reacted before and after smoking (2-3 cigarettes). It turned out that with an initially excessively low threshold of irritation, smoking raised it (up to 72%) and, conversely, with an elevated one, it lowered it (up to 27%). Hence the conclusion that smoking has a certain ability to regulate excessively increased or decreased sensitivity-excitability of the nervous system, and with this regulation of the threshold of irritation (excitation and calming) the wide popularity of smoking can be connected, which is difficult to explain only by imitation and habituation. The influence of tobacco on human mental activity is insignificant. Numerous studies on schoolchildren, which revealed relatively poor academic performance and 'bad behavior' of smoking children (Garvey, Lord and others), are unconvincing, since general factors such as lack of supervision, poverty, psychopathies, etc., can lead to poor school performance and to mischief and to smoking. Also unconvincing are references to great people who smoked or used snuff (Darwin, Newton, Napoleon, Cromwell, Washington, George Sand, Byron, Dickens, Swift and others); against this list stands another (Goethe, Heine, Hugo, Balzac and others) of great non-smokers, to which can be added all outstanding people of the ancient world and the Renaissance, who created in periods when Europe did not yet know tobacco. Thus, there is no need to speak of the role of tobacco as a source or brake on inspiration, mental capacity and progress. Serious experimental work by Hull on 9 smoking and 9 non-smoking students, where elements of (self-)suggestion were excluded, studied the speed of reading words, fine movements, reproduction of learned material, muscle fatigue, volume of memory, speed and accuracy of adding numbers, etc., showed a slight decrease in mental capacity (increase in the number of errors with a certain, however, acceleration of work) under the influence of smoking (by 5.13%). The indications found in old authors about a significant weakening of memory or the so-called 'moral sense' in excessive smokers are of course unfounded, as well as descriptions of special 'nicotine psychoses'. Cases of transient weakening of hearing and aphasia in chronic tobacco poisoning occur. Among diseases of individual nerves, tobacco amblyopia is observed - a decrease in vision, not accompanied by visible changes in the eyeball and explained by inflammation of the optic nerve. Vision gradually weakens, insensitivity of a segment of the retina (scotoma) develops. If the process has not yet caused degenerative changes, it passes with the cessation of smoking; otherwise, one can only delay the further course of the disease. Winkler describes a number of cases of chronic tobacco poisoning that have a great resemblance to the picture of tabes, which he calls pseudotabes nicotiana; however, these cases are very rare. More common are cases of convulsive seizures in chronic tobacco poisoning. In connection with the depressing effect of nicotine on the spinal cord (and erection centers), a negative effect of excessive consumption of tobacco on sexual ability can be expected, to which there are indications.

In experiments by Wright, Petit, and others, destructive changes were found in the testicles, seminiferous tubules, etc., of dogs and rabbits that had received tobacco. More serious is the effect of nicotine on the sexual sphere of women: due to its ability to cause spasms of smooth muscle, women subjected to prolonged tobacco use, according to some authors (Decroix and others), suffer more frequent miscarriages. Cases have been described (Kovalevsky and others) where excessive tobacco smoking seemed to cause the development of a neurasthenic syndrome in the form of increased sensitivity of the nervous system, lack of self-confidence, irritability, hypochondria, sexual weakness, etc. However, here a reverse relationship is also possible, i.e., the development of neurasthenic phenomena creates a need for increased smoking. Smoking, due to the narcotic effect of nicotine, apparently has a certain calming effect on subjects with a labile, easily excitable neuropsychic sphere, which explains, besides pure imitation and habituation, the widespread prevalence of tobacco smoking on earth and the persistent, insurmountable attachment to Tobacco in many people. It is possible that the emotional state of the smoker is also influenced by the stimulating effect of nicotine on the endocrine glands, in particular the adrenal glands (Kuznetsov) (see Nicotine). The direct irritating effect of tobacco on the mucous membranes of the lips and tongue sometimes, according to some authors, leads to the formation of ulcers and tumors, including cancerous ones. Therapy for acute poisonings by Tobacco consists of using its antidote-atropine, cardiac stimulants (caffeine, camphor), artificial respiration. When Tobacco enters the stomach, astringents (tannin) are given. For chronic poisonings by Tobacco, it is necessary to completely stop its use and then treat the disease caused by or associated with it-arteriosclerosis, amblyopia, ulcus, etc. Tobacco should be taken away from the patient immediately, without fear of harmful physiological effects. An exception is permissible only for patients with decompensated heart defects and severe arteriosclerosis, where withdrawal from Tobacco should be gradual. In tobacco factories, industrial-sanitary measures are of great importance for preventing chronic poisonings by Tobacco, primarily ventilation of premises from fine tobacco dust. Therapy for tobacco smoking as such is complicated by the development in a habitual smoker of a persistent reflex to tobacco smoking due to the mild euphoric (narcotic) effect of nicotine and the appearance in the first days after cessation of smoking of phenomena of nicotine abstinence (resembling, though in a much weakened form, morphine abstinence): disturbance of salivation and perspiration, headaches, palpitations, pain in the stomach area, general weakness, disturbance of attention and performance, need for movement, insomnia or drowsiness, extreme irritability, mood swings. These phenomena, expressed in very different degrees, partly of a psychogenic nature, partly based on the purely physiological reaction of the body to the removal of the usual narcotic, which is apparently associated with a decrease in the tone of the parasympathetic nervous system, deprived of its usual stimulant-nicotine (Rapoport and Lakhman). Accordingly, in treatment, various methods of psychotherapy (rational, hypnosis) are indicated, and to alleviate the physiological reaction-compensation for the first few days for the removed nicotine in the form of solutions with a similar effect to pilocarpine; at the same time, depending on the picture and degree of the reaction, sedatives and stimulants are prescribed. Following the short-term abstinence phenomena, the positive effect of cessation of tobacco smoking quickly appears in the form of increased appetite, improvement of respiratory and cardiac activity. The use of so-called 'denicotinized' Tobacco, sanitary mouthpieces, etc., to alleviate the effect of tobacco smoking is of no serious importance, since nicotine enters the body in significant amounts with them, and in addition, with the preservation of the habit, sooner or later they return to 'real' smoking. In the fight against tobacco smoking, certain importance is attached to sanitary-hygienic measures in the form of sanitary education and partial restrictive-prohibitory measures (prohibition of smoking in public places). The greatest preventive effect can be achieved through mass hygienic work among children and youth, since imitation plays a major role in the etiology of addiction to Tobacco; in the USSR conditions, when conducting such preventive work by a physician, the support of teachers and the public through trade union, Komsomol, and pioneer organizations is also necessary. The scale of modern tobacco consumption is characterized by the following figures. Production of cigarettes in the USSR in 1927 was 102 billion pieces. Consumption in Germany (1925): 30 billion cigarettes, 5,700 thousand cigars, 25 million kg of pipe tobacco and 2.5 million kg of snuff. The value of tobacco products used in Germany in the 1927/28 budget year was 2,389 million gold marks. The size of tobacco plantations and output of the most important producing countries can be seen from the following table: Countries Area of tobacco plantations (in thousands of hectares) 1921-25 1930- 1930/31 Output (in thousands of centners) The total area of tobacco plantations on earth (together with small producers and China, not included in the table) was 2,700 thousand hectares in 1930/31. The total fatty output of Tobacco was (without China with an output of 2-3 million centners) in 1929-1930 23,100 thousand centners.--As for the industrial-commercial significance of the tobacco industry, one can judge from the following data: in the USA in 1931, 1,083 tobacco factories operated with a total value of output of 983,842 thousand dollars. Tobacco export: from the USA (1932)-86,282 thousand dollars, from Brazil (1932)-27,006 thousand dollars, from the island of Cuba (1931)-22,932 thousand dollars.

A. Rapoport. Tobacco production. The production of smoking tobacco and cigarettes consists of the following operations: arriving at the factory in bales, the bundles of leaves are sorted, torn into individual leaves, which are then mixed in certain proportions (batch preparation); the batch goes to shredding machines, where tobacco is fed under a guillotine and cut into fibers; the latter go for drying, then are shaken, and in this already consumer-ready form, tobacco goes either to the packing department, where it is packed into pouches, or to cigarette-making machines, where cigarettes are prepared; after this follows their packing into packs, which are packed into boxes and sent to the warehouse. Makhorka production differs from smoking tobacco production in that makhorka leaves on shredding machines are turned into 'crumbs,' which after sifting are dried, sifted again, then moistened and go to the packing department, where they are packed into pouches. Snuff tobacco in our country is prepared from dust, which is a waste product of makhorka production. In cigar production, the main operation—cigar rolling—is done by hand. The main professional hazard of all types of tobacco production is the release of a large amount of dust, which is contained in the air of all working rooms. The effect of tobacco dust consists, first, in a sharp irritation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, conjunctiva, middle ear, external female genital organs, skin; second, the dust contains 1-2% nicotine, which is easily leached from the body's juices (60-85% according to Burstein), is absorbed into the body and causes various disorders characteristic of chronic exposure to nicotine. According to Grodovsky, Leshchinskaya and others, the amount of dust in 1 m³ of air reaches: in the sorting department 40-100 mg, in the shredding department 60-110 mg, in the cigarette-packing department 55-75 mg, etc.; especially great was the amount of dust in the past during manual processes of drying and shaking; here the dust content in the air reached hundreds of mg/m³. In makhorka production, the amount of dust released is generally greater, and again it is especially great in non-mechanized processes (drying, moistening) and with poorly covered equipment (sieves). The total amount of nicotine entering the body per working day, for different departments according to Burstein, ranges from 0.308 to 1.905 mg. The literature published in old years (Costial, 1868; Valitskaya, 1888; Rosenfeld, 1903; Verishofer, 1890, and many others) paints an extremely unfavorable picture of working conditions in tobacco production and the health of workers: for example, according to Costial (Austria) and Valitskaya (Russia), almost all workers after a short period of employment were found to be poisoned by nicotine (especially sharply disorders manifested in young girls and children). In the USSR in the last 10-12 years, a large number of studies have been conducted on workers in tobacco production (Rosenbaum, 1921; Leshchinskaya, 1923; Pasternak, 1923; Kaminsky, 1926; Neyding, 1923; Latyshev, 1927, and many others); these studies showed that compared to previous data, the effect of professional hazards on the bodies of tobacco workers is incomparably weaker. Nevertheless, even now among tobacco workers a large number of people suffering from diseases of the upper respiratory tract, heart and blood vessels, female genital sphere, nervous system, etc. are found. For example, according to Latyshev's data for 1927, among 907 workers of Moscow tobacco factories, diseases of the heart and blood vessels were found in 96%, anemia in 46%, female genital organs in 38%. In the matter of improving working conditions in tobacco production in the USSR, very great successes have been achieved: very soon after the October Revolution (1918), workers in this production were transferred to a seven-hour working day, most small enterprises were closed and the entire industry was concentrated in a few large, best-equipped factories. In subsequent years, significant improvements were introduced in tobacco factories through the radical reorganization of a number of production processes—rationalization and mechanization of sorting, drying, shaking, packing into packs; covering of dust-generating parts of equipment (shredding and cigarette-packing machines), installation of rational exhaust at sorting, shredding and cigarette-packing machines, etc. No less significant improvements have been introduced in makhorka production—it has been fully mechanized on a number of factories, right up to packing makhorka into pouches. Thanks to the introduction of these measures, the amount of dust released into the air has sharply decreased (for example, when pneumatics are installed at shredding machines, the dust content in the air at the machines does not exceed 4-10 mg/m³, the introduction of machines for packing cigarettes into packs eliminated manual work, which often caused tenosynovitis in workers and reduced dust content to 6-7 mg/m³, the installation of a conveyor in the tearing department in combination with air humidification reduced air dustiness to 13-18 mg/m³, in the shredding department after the installation of ventilation, the dust content in the air decreased to 15-33 mg/m³, in the cigarette-packing department to 5-9 mg/m³.