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Tobacco has a long history. The Mayan Indians of Mexico carved drawings in stone showing tobacco use that date back to somewhere between 600 to 900 A.D.

Tobacco was grown by American Indians before the Europeans arrived in North America and was smoked in a pipe.

It was the first crop grown for money in North America.

In 1612 the settlers of the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia, grew tobacco as a cash crop and it became their main source of money.

By the 1800s many people had begun using small amounts of tobacco.

Some chewed it. Others smoked it occasionally in a pipe, or they hand-rolled it in a cigarette or cigar.

The first commercial cigarettes were made in 1865 by Washington Duke on his 300-acre farm in Raleigh, North Carolina.

James Bonsack’s invention of the cigarette-making machine in 1881 saw cigarette smoking become widespread.

The number of smokers grew during the First and Second World Wars when soldiers overseas were given free cigarettes every day and in the 1940s the number of women smokers greatly increased.

But it was not until the early 1960s that the health dangers of cigarette smoking, principally the risk of contracting lung cancer, were recognised.

This later led to cigarette manufacturers being forced to add health warning labels to their packets and the introduction of cigarettes with lower tar and nicotine content and improved filters.

Later bans on smoking on public transport and in public places were introduced.