Tobacco use has been linked with many different diseases, especially of the oral and respiratory systems. Smoking has been found to cause leukoplakia, cancers of the oral cavity, gingival recession, hypertension, and nicotine dependence. One third of all continuous cigarette users will die of tobacco related disease.
Tobacco is also vastly important to the indigenous population of the Americas.
This often presents a problem with health intervention programs designed to curb cigarette or other tobacco use because of tobaccos sacred value to Natives. The genus Nicotiana has many species which have been, and are still used by Indigenous people. Native people have used tobacco to heal illnesses, make alliances, and to pray. In many instances, the availability of real tobacco, the traditional tobacco used by a group, is low or non-existent. As a result, the utilization of commercial tobacco is substituted.