Green leaves of the tobacco plant give rise to tobacco after a series of drying and rolling. Tobacco can be found in huge number of different products. These include the more common smoking cigarettes, cigars and pipes, hookah/shisha pipes and also a number of smoke-free products such as snuff and chewing tobacco. There are also a large number of products that contain tobacco that are marketed to try and help people beat their addiction to tobacco, such as skin patches, e-cigarettes and chewing gum.

According to the NHS, there are about 80,000 smoking-related deaths each year in the UK. It is also argued by a number of people, including Patrick Reynolds, whose father founded the RJ Reynolds Tobacco company; that cigarettes kill more people every year, than all the murders, drug overdoses, suicides, car accidents and aids put together