<P> Ever since smoking was introduced outside of the Americas, there has been much vehement opposition to it . Arguments ranged from socio - economic, with tobacco called a usurper of good farm land--to purely moralistic, where many religiously devout individuals saw tobacco as another form of immoral intoxication . Many arguments were presented to the effect that smoking was harmful, and even if the critics were in the end right about many of their claims, the complaints were usually not based on scientific arguments, and if they were, these often relied on humorism and other pre-modern scientific methods . </P> <P> Dr Eleazar Duncon, 1606, wrote that tobacco "...is so hurtful and dangerous to youth that it might have the pernicious nation expressed in the name, and that it were as well known by the name of Youths - bane as by the name of tobacco ." </P> <P> Early 17th century descriptive notices of various characteristic types and fashions of men portray tobacconists and smokers as individuals who suffer from false self - images and mistaken illusions about the properties of tobacco taking . Though physicians such as Benjamin Rush claimed tobacco use (including smoking) negatively impacted health as far back as 1798, not until the early 20th century did researchers begin to conduct serious medical studies . </P> <P> In the late 19th century, automated cigarette - making machinery was invented . Factories, primarily located in the southern United States, allowed for the mass production of cigarettes at low costs . Cigarettes became elegant and fashionable among society men as the Victorian era gave way to the Edwardian . In 1912, American Dr. Isaac Adler was the first to strongly suggest that lung cancer is related to smoking . </P>

When was smoking first known to be harmful