Vaping may be the latest form of smoking, but the desire to find different ways of consuming tobacco dates back to ancient times. Here are some methods that people have used to extract the drug from these potent plants.
1. Chewing
Scholars estimate that tobacco cultivation began in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Andes circa 5000 to 3000 B.C. Because one of the least complicated ways to consume tobacco is by chewing its leaves, this was probably one of the earliest ways people ingested the plant.
Tobacco chewing persists to this day, and many people who indulge do so with manufactured chewing tobacco products that may be fermented or sweetened. However, the FDA warns that “chew” other forms of “smokeless tobacco” are still dangerous to your health and should not be considered a healthy alternative to smoking cigarettes.
2. Snuffing
Archaeologists have discovered ancient “snuffing tubes” in the Americas that people likely used to inhale dry, powdered tobacco through their noses. Of course, this wasn’t the only drug you could use them for. In Bolivia, scientists detected traces of five psychoactive chemicals, including cocaine, in 1,000-year-old ritual kit with a snuffing tube.
Some people still use tobacco by inhaling a powdered product called “snuff” through their noses. Much like chewing tobacco, snuff is still dangerous and presents, in the U.S. Surgeon General's words, a "serious health risk."
3. Smoke Enemas
Before the European invasion, people in the Americas smoked tobacco in a variety of ways. They might lay tobacco leaves over hot coals and inhale the smoke, or smoke the leaves in a pipe. Some probably also smoked tobacco leaves by rolling them in the leaves of another plant to make a cigar. These ways of smoking often served medical and/or religious functions.
Another way to take in tobacco smoke was through a smoke enema. Some people in the Americas believed funneling tobacco smoke through the rectum could stimulate respiration. British invaders of North America brought this practice back to Europe, where doctors began using tobacco smoke enemas to treat a variety of ailments: headaches, respiratory problems, hernias, typhoid fever and even cholera.
However, the practice fell out of fashion in Europe after in 1811, when a British scientist discovered nicotine—the addictive chemical found in tobacco—was toxic to the heart.
READ MORE: When Cigarette Companies Used Doctors to Push Smoking
4. Cigarettes
In the late 19th century, a new process called flue curing paved the way for the modern cigarette. Flue curing is a method of heating that produces a milder, lighter form of tobacco, says Alex Liber, a scientist in economic and health policy research at the American Cancer Society.
“The reason that this was important, is that it processes the tobacco in such a way that you can inhale it into your lungs,” Liber says. So ironically, the fact that people started smoking tobacco that was less harsh ended up causing a rise in lung cancer.
By the second half of the 1800s, machines began producing cigarettes at an faster rate and mass production allowed tobacco companies to vastly expand their market. The overall increase in smoking led to a dramatic rise in lung cancer rates.
As awareness of cancer risks associated with smoking became more widespread in the later half of the 20th century, tobacco companies sought different ways to sell smoking products that remained addictive but at least appeared less harmful. One example is cigarette “filters,” which were introduced in the mid-20th century (today, most cigarettes are “filtered”).
While the filters block larger tar chemicals, they still allow chemicals and smaller tar particles to pass into the lungs. In a 1976 memo, a lawyer for the Brown & Williamson tobacco company wrote that “the smoker of a filter cigarette was getting as much or more nicotine and tar as he would have gotten from a regular cigarette.”
5. Vaping
Tobacco companies began researching vaping since at least the 1963, says Zachary Cahn, a principal scientist in economic and health policy research at the American Cancer Society who co-authored a paper on the subject. In the late 1980s, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company introduced Premier, a new kind of cigarette that produced less smoke by heating aluminum capsules that contained tobacco pellets, but it never caught on.
Tobacco companies continued to try to create new types of cigarettes with electronic nicotine delivery systems into the 1990s. When vaping technology emerged in the 21st century, they invested in it heavily. Both R.J. Reynolds and the tobacco company Philip Morris International produce e-cigarettes.
Despite the fact that there is no smoke, the U.S. Surgeon General has warned that e-cigarettes still release high levels of levels of nicotine into the user’s body and are addictive.
In the wake of deaths due to lung illnesses related to e-cigarette use, the U.S. government announced in September 2019 that it planned to ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes, products that health officials argued specifically target teenagers.
