Tobacco products and tobacco industry

Commercially available in cured, dried and natural forms, it is often smoked in the form of a cigarettes, cigar or in a stem pipe, water pipe, and hookah.

Tobacco is an product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. Tobacco had already been used in the Americas when European settlers arrived and introduced the practice to Europe, where it became hugely popular. With the arrival of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling the colonization of the future American South, long before the creation of the United States. The initial colonial expansion, fueled by the desire to increase tobacco production, was one cause of the first colonial conflicts with Native Americans and became a driving factor for the use of African slave labor..

Many countries set a minimum smoking age, regulating the purchase and use of tobacco products. All methods of tobacco consumption result in varying quantities of nicotine being absorbed into the user's bloodstream. Over time, tolerance and dependence develop. Absorption quantity, frequency, and speed seem to have a direct relationship with how strong a dependence and tolerance, if any, might be created.

The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any warm, moist environment, which means it is farmed on all continents. Tobacco is a commodity product similar in economic terms to foodstuffs in that the price is set by the fact that crop yields vary depending on local weather conditions. The price varies by specific species grown, the total quantity on the market ready for sale, the area where it was grown, the health of the plants, and other characteristics individual to product quality. Laws around the world now often have some restrictions on smoking but, still 5.5 trillion cigarettes are smoked each year. Taxes are often imposed heavily on tobacco.

The tobacco industry is heavily dominated by giant firms. Due to historical growing areas, many of these companies are concentrated in the southern United States, particularly Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia. Other companies are based around the world. Tobacco advertising is becoming increasingly restricted around the world.