Author: Ridhima Mahajan, Student at Lovely Professional University, Punjab
ABSTRACT
It is the process of inhaling and exhaling the fumes of the plant material which is considered as burning. Large numbers of plant materials are smoked like tobacco which contains nicotine, an alkaloid which is addictive and it has been found that it has also stimulating and tranquilizing psychoactive effects.
Tobacco had become recognized as being highly addictive and world’s most-devastating causes of death and disease by the dawn of 21st century. In addition to this, because of the expeditious increase in smoking in developing countries in the late 20th century, the number of smoking-related deaths per year was projected to rise hasty in the 21st century.
For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in the late 1990s there were approximately four million tobacco-caused deaths per year worldwide. This estimate was increased to approximately five million in 2003 and six million in 2011 and was expected to reach eight million per year by 2030. An estimated 80 percent of those deaths were projected to occur in developing countries. Indeed, although tobacco use was declining in many countries of Western Europe and North America and in Australia, it continued to increase in countries of Asia, Africa, and South America.
