From resuscitating drowning victims to ‘curing’ asthma – the terrifying history of cigarettes as ‘medicine’

CIGARETTES are the leading cause of death in the UK – killing around 76,000 people per year.

So, it’s hard to believe the toxic tobacco sticks were once used as a medicine.

AlamyA tobacco smoke enema was used to resuscitate drowning victims in the Georgian era[/caption]

AlamyIn the 1920s, tobacco firms began targeting women by claiming cigarettes could help people lose weight[/caption]

Cigarette companies such as Camel used the image of the doctor to sell their products.

From the 17th century, right through to the 20th century, tobacco was thought to have extraordinary medicinal powers.

Even as health concerns over smoking began to emerge in the 1900s, the tobacco industry hit back with claims about the benefits of cigarettes.

Some promised to keep you slim and even protect against various diseases.

Now, 100 years on, smoking is set to be gradually banned in Britain after countless studies have linked the deadly habit to lung cancer.

If passed, the new law will raise the legal smoking age by one year every year, meaning a 14-year-old today will never legally be able to buy a cigarette.

But why did it take us this long to get here? And why, for so long, was smoking considered good for us despite a growing body of evidence which always proved otherwise?

We spoke to Professor Sanjay Agrawal, chair of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group, to find out why smoking was ever considered a cure rather than the killer it is.

“Tobacco, if introduced as a new product today, would not be allowed,” he says.

“It’s uniquely designed to kill its users and kills more than one in two people who use it.”

The tobacco plant was first introduced to England in the 16th century, from Spain.

“People considered it to be this wonder drug and used it to treat many illnesses, like cough and colds and skin conditions,” Prof Sanjay says.

Warding off the Black Death

In fact, during the sixteenth century, there were few ailments for which tobacco was not prescribed.

Early writing suggest the plant’s leaves were placed on wounds to help them heal, they were also inhaled to cure toothache and epilepsy.

During the London black plague of 1665, children were told to smoke in their schoolroom, as experts then believed it would ward off the illness.

One of the most unusual medical uses for tobacco was the smoke enema, which was used to (attempt to) resuscitate drowning victims in Georgian London.

Medics thought that tobacco smoke could combat colds and drowsiness, making it a ‘logical choice’ in the treatment of drowned people needing warmth and sudden shock to wake them up.

Tobacco-smoke enema kits were dotted along the River Thames by the Royal Humane Society, in case of emergency.

Asthma cigarettes

While most of these wild beliefs fell to the wayside, experts continued to think smoking could ward off certain diseases for centuries.

In the 1800s, doctors even began prescribing cigarettes to treat asthma.

Brands like Potter’s and Dr Batty’s asthma cigarettes used the plant stramonium rather than tobacco.

The herb was believed to help to open the airways and, in doing so, relieve the symptoms of asthma.

However, any potential benefits would likely have been counteracted by the irritation and damage the smoke would do to the patient’s lungs.

A weight loss ‘wonder’

In the 1920s, tobacco firms began targeting women by claiming cigarettes could help people lose weight.

“It wasn’t until the 1900s that we started to get scientific research that proved the link between tobacco and various diseases,” Prof Sanjay says.

During the 1920s, the first medical reports linking smoking to lung cancer began to emerge.

But to keep people smoking, cigarette companies used images of doctors to sell their products.

Ads famously claimed that doctors recommended smoking and smoked themselves, even though, at the time, they didn’t.

Groundbreaking report unveils harms

In 1962, the Royal College of Physicians published its report on smoking, which, for the first time, suggested that the government introduce regulations to limit and discourage the use of tobacco.

Over the next 10 to 20 years, the UK saw a massive shift in how smoking was advertised.

“Cigarettes were slowly appearing less in the media and on billboards in towns, and posters to discourage smoking started to pop up,” the professor explains.

“But these changes were incremental as the tobacco lobby still held a lot of power,” he adds.

By the 1980s and 1990s, the detrimental health effects of passive smoking were revealed.

Passive smoking, or second-hand smoking, increases your risk of getting the same health conditions as smokers, the NHS says.

This led to a smoking ban for all indoor public places and workplaces in Britain in 2007; this included work vehicles, hire cars and public transport.

The legislation resulted in 1200 fewer hospital emergency admissions for heart attacks in the following year.

Rise of the e-cigarette

In the early 2000s, the e-cigarette – otherwise known as a vape – was invented by a pharmacist in China after he lost his father to lung cancer. 

By 2005, electronic nicotine devices were introduced to the UK when they were promoted as a far healthier alternative to tobacco, which they undoubtedly are.

While comparing the risks of cigarettes against vapes, Prof Sanjay is clear, e-cigarettes are the safer option for smokers.

“It’s the 1000s of dangerous compounds and chemicals in a cigarette, like tar, that cause inflammation and cancer.

“These are the chemicals that vape users are not exposed to, which makes them safe, and it’s why they are often used by people wanting to stop smoking cigarettes,” he says.

Countless studies have emerged suggesting vaping is the most effective stop-smoking aid, scoring higher than gums and patches and the NHS recommends vaping as a stop-smoking method – though it is not without risk.

Today, it’s estimated that over 4.5 million people in the UK are using e-cigarettes in the UK alone, and this number is increasing rapidly.

When manufacturers started producing vapes in fun flavours, like cherry peach lemonade, cola and strawberry ice cream, sales began to grow spectacularly – especially among children.

One in ten children aged 11 to 15 use e-cigs, NHS figures show — even though selling them to under-18s is illegal.

There are growing concerns about the long-term effects of vaping on children, but research is still in its early stages.

“Vaping should only be used as a means of quitting tobacco and should never be advertised to children,” Prof Sanjay adds.

Ministers are proposing a host of new measures to reduce how many young people are drawn to e-cigarettes.

Changes would include restricting flavours and vape packaging and hiking up the price to make them less appealing to children.

The Government has since pledged to take things one step further when it comes to cigarette smoking by effectively banning it.

The UK will become ‘smoke-free’ by 2040, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hopes – an unrecognisable change from the UK’s view on smoking 100 years ago.

SuppliedIn the 1800s, doctors even began prescribing cigarettes to treat asthma[/caption]

AlamyMany editors refused to expose the health risks of smoking a[/caption]

AlamyBig Tobacco did its best to make sure the public was unaware of how dangerous cigarettes were turning out to be[/caption]