Smoking became popular in Europe in the sixteenth century, when colonists brought the tobacco plant back from America. At that time, it was believed by many that tobacco had health benefits. This belief may have arisen from the fact that Native Americans used tobacco for medicinal and religious purposes.

Despite this popular view, King James I of England believed that pipe smoking was an extremely harmful habit. He wrote a strong attack on the use of tobacco, called ‘Counterblaste to Tobacco’, in which he denounced smoking in the strongest terms. This view was dismissed at the time by the Royal College of Physicians. However, James I also benefited from the heavy taxes he put on tobacco, which was successfully cultivated and imported to England from the Virginia Colony by John Rolfe.

At first, people smoked tobacco using pipes and cigars. Cigarettes were invented after beggars began to take tobacco from used cigars and roll them in paper. The wealthy often took tobacco in the form of snuff. It was not until the late eighteenth century that a physician, John Hill, performed a proper study of the effects of tobacco. He warned users of snuff that they could get cancer of the nose.

In 1912, the first strong connection was made between smoking tobacco and lung cancer. Then in 1939, the first major report to establish this link was published by Franz Hermann Muller of the University of Cologne. In 1951, a study found that of 1,357 men with lung cancer in British hospitals, 99.5% were smokers. Many more studies went on to confirm the dangers of smoking.

Despite this, it was not until the 1960s that the public became fully aware of the dangers of tobacco through public education programmes. Because the nicotine in tobacco is very addictive, many people find it difficult to give up smoking, and the tobacco companies are thriving to this day. Governments are trying to reduce smoking through smoking bans in certain places. Ireland took the lead in 2004 by becoming the first European country to impose a ban on smoking in the workplace. This law helps to protect those who do not smoke from the effects of 'passive smoking', which can also be harmful.