WEBVTT - Asthma and Smoking: When Cigarettes Were Medicine 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:13.399 with iHeartRadio. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.400 In nineteen forty six, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company launched 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.840 an ad campaign with the slogan quote more doctors smoke 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:26.800 camels than any other cigarette, long before camel cigarettes became 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.520 the doctor approved cigarette of choice. At least in advertising, 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.520 people living with asthma were often instructed to inhale smoke 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.239 to relieve their symptoms, and that advice was for asthmatic 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:43.120 adults and children, and that is definitely not how asthma 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:47.680 is treated today. The popular asthma cigarette, as they were called, 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.600 and related products weren't packed full of tobacco, though many 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:55.320 did include it. They were essentially psychotropic drugs from the 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:59.000 night shade family that people inhaled in hopes of respiratory relief. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.520 Go to a time in history, a rather long period 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.959 of time, it turns out, when smoking was recommended to 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.360 people as young as six years old. And we'll take 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.679 a look at what kinds of quack and I actually, 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.880 to be honest, some not so quack products for asthma 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.160 that existed before the invention of the inhaler. Welcome to criminalia, 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:20.520 I'm Maria, tremarky. 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.480 And I'm a holly fry. Asthma is a chronic disease 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.360 that affects the airways of your lungs. During an asthma attack, 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.920 a person's airways becomes swollen and they narrow, Mucus develops 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.400 in them, and all of this can make it really 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:40.679 difficult to breathe. Symptoms of an asthma attack can include coughing, wheezing, 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:45.560 shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Attacks can range from 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.720 a mild nuisance to a life threatening emergency. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.280 Asthma wasn't always known to be an inflammatory response. It 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:58.520 was considered the result of neurosis. It has at times 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.120 been considered a symptom of demonic possession as well. But 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.920 no matter what people thought caused it, they sure did 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.480 try a lot of things to relieve it, and not 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.440 often included inhaling smoke, contrary to our modern treatments. We 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:15.800 can go all the way back to ancient China around 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:19.080 five thousand years ago to find that a Chinese herb 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.040 called Ephedra seneca was inhaled for relieving asthma discomfort. 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.680 Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates believe that people living with asthma 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:32.000 might display a hunched back. He thought that you could 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.280 tell they had asthma just by looking at them. You 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:40.080 can't but that aside. He also was the first person 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.440 to record his work in trying to understand the correlation 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.040 that he observed between environment and specific trades and how 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:53.520 they seemed to impact respiratory problems. He too recommended inhaling 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.440 a fedra along with a glass of red wine for 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:01.480 symptomatic relief. Around fifty CE, ancient Roman Pliny the Elder 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.399 found links between pollen and breathing difficulties, and he too 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:10.240 recommended inhaling ephedra as a treatment for those respiratory issues. 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.600 As an aside, it is actually debated whether or not 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.600 Pliny himself may have lived with asthma. It wasn't until 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.320 around one hundred CE that the Greek physician Aretius of 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.480 Cappadocia wrote a detailed definition of asthma that was actually 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.799 fairly similar to the modern understanding of how the disease develops. 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.919 And then he suggested that drinking a concoction of owl's 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.960 blood and wine was an effective remedy and preventative. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:43.920 It's not Ehedra is a predecessor, though, of today's drug epinephrine, 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.000 which is a common ingredient in modern quick relief asthma treatments. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.720 But while it may have been a valid remedy because 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:55.560 of its anti inflammatory properties the fine particles inhaled from smoking, 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.800 it may not have been the best delivery method for 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:03.360 respiratory health. Let's talk about asthma's smoke because things have 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.720 come a long way in what we know about asthma 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.880 and what we know can help or worsen its symptoms. 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:14.080 Today, we know that inhaling particles from smoke is considered 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.400 a big asthma trigger, and people living with a condition 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.080 are instructed to avoid smoking and secondhand smoke, as well 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.680 as poor air quality such as the kind you would 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:29.240 see in a wildfire smoke, or even vehicle exhaust. All 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:35.400 smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and particulate matter. Depending 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:40.719 on what's burning, smoke can also contain different chemicals like aldehydes, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:51.279 acid gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, styrene, metals, 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.799 and dioxids. All of these are bad for the human body, 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.800 whether you have asthma or not. The United States Environmental 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.200 Protection Agency DeFi air pollution as quote any visible or 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.720 invisible particles or gas found in the air that is 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.800 not part of the natural composition of air. Even the 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:16.160 smallest airborne particles can be respiratory irritants, whether you intentionally 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:17.200 inhale them or not. 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.680 An asthma attack can occur when something irritates your airways, 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.320 but triggers do vary from person to person. One super 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:32.680 common trigger, though, is smoke. Inhaling smoke is unhealthy for everyone. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.360 It irritates the lining of the airways, and it's associated 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.160 with more severe asthma symptoms. It often also means more 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.080 doctor visits and more frequent hospital admissions, and it's linked 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.720 to not just an accelerated decline in your lung function, 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.239 it also makes your body respond poorly to commonly used 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:51.360 asthma treatments. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.160 Okay, so what's the takeaway. It's pretty obvious, but asthma 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.680 and smoke just do not mix. We're going to take 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.080 a break here for a word from our sponsors, and 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.039 when we're back, we'll talk about all kinds of methods 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.920 and products that people used to inhale in the hopes 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.680 that they would find a way to manage asthma symptoms. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:27.120 Welcome back to criminalia. There is no cure for asthma. However, 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.680 to help control asthma symptoms and avoid attacks, there are 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:32.480 a few rules of thumb. 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.040 Modern medicine has treatments that can help alleviate asthma symptoms 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.720 without needing to have a lighter on hand. But just 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.120 as there's no cure, there's also no one size fits all. 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:50.080 Treatment options include medications that are inhaled. Some can be 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.880 taken as a pill. These inhaled medicines, though do not 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.560 contain smoke. There are two general types of asthma medications. 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.800 Quick relief dre ugs such as a beta agonist like albuterol, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.599 are used to control the symptoms of an asthma attack 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.560 that's in progress by opening the airways, and long term 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.920 options including inhaled or systemic corticosteroids can help you have 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.640 fewer and milder attacks in the long run. 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.920 It was English physician and astronomer John Mudge who created 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:26.120 the very first inhaler of sorts in seventeen seventy eight, 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.720 which he based on a Pewter tankard. Its design allowed 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.760 the user to breathe in an opium based vapor through 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.760 a tube. The earliest known reference of smoking opium for 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.800 respiratory relief dates back to eleven hundred BCE in China, 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.920 and for a very long period of time, incense burners 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.720 and pipes were the most prominent form for that type 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:51.920 of opiate based respiratory drug delivery. People also began to 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:56.440 use ceramic pots to inhale herb or chemical infused vapors. 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.760 In eighteen eighty five, the first portable nebulizer hit the market. 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.400 Dry powder inhalers also became popular around that same time. 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.840 They worked by squeezing a rubber ball, and users could 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.880 force a medicinal powder through a sieve to convert it 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.640 into a vapor. One dry powder in haler on the 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.560 market claimed it could cure asthma in ten minutes or less, 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.240 but really, to no one's surprise, it could not. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.960 The major breakthrough in asthma treatment came in the nineteen 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:28.160 fifties when the first portable meter dose in haler was 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:33.080 invented by George Maison, the president of Riker Laboratories. Its 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.640 design used glass vials and valves that were originally designed 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.600 for perfume models to effectively deliver a puff of medicine 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.320 to the lungs, and it set the stage for new 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:50.120 asthma technology, including breath actuated inhler's, spacer devices and dosage counters. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.120 Meter dose in Haler's are now the most common device 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:55.599 used for treating asthma. 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.280 But we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves with all 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:02.560 this jazz about modern inhalers. Let's jump back to smoking 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:07.080 remedies and start with one called fumigation. The Ebers Papyrus 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.520 is an ancient Egyptian compilation of medical texts that dates 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.040 back to about fifteen fifty BCE, making it one of 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:19.840 the oldest known medical works. It contains asthma remedies prescribed 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.439 by ancient Egyptian healers, and herbal treatments were the most common. 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.760 These remedies included drying herbs, specifically black henbane, heating them 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:31.960 on a hot stone, and then placing a jar with 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.839 a hole over it. The user would inhale the smoke 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.360 through the stalk of a reed that was placed into 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:42.800 that hole. The smoke allegedly offered mild breathing relief for 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:47.560 those who are curious. Other cures cited included quote the 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.920 droppings of camels and crocodiles, though we are totally unsure 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.400 how that remedy was administered and please let it not 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:57.040 have been inhalation. 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.480 Moving along on our history timeline, next, we have inhaling 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.280 pipes the smoke of stramonium, a plant from the same 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.080 family as belladonna and that you may also know as 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.920 gymsen weed and other similar herbs like black henbane, indian hemp, tobacco, 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.760 and cannabis were all on the list of plants to 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.520 inhale for asthma symptom relief. Dried and crushed plant material 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:25.680 was stuffed into a hollow pipe and inhaling. The smoke 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.320 was believed to be calming and that it could ease 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:32.920 mildly labored breathing. In fact, you can find ancient healers 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:37.040 prescribing smoking pipes for asthma symptom relief at least as 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:41.160 far back as one hundred BCE. In addition to the 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.400 problem of irritating your airways with smoke particles, some of 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:50.560 these plants, including stramonium and black henbane, are toxic and 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.959 they may cause hallucinations or neurological problems. Hold on to 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.160 that because we're going to talk more about those ingredients 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:57.720 in a moment. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.560 So what could be better than a pipe stuffed with 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:07.840 plants we know have toxic and hallucinigenic properties, enter cigars 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:12.640 stuffed full of toxic and hallucinogenic herbs. In eighteen oh two, 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:17.040 a Scottish born physician slash general named James Anderson was 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.320 in India regarding the cultivation of silk when he first 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.200 learned that people there inhaled smoke as a treatment for asthma. 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.439 He shared that knowledge with his patients, and he wasn't 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:31.040 the only one who'd caught the wave. A craze blue 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.400 through Europe and then the United States. It seemed everyone 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.640 was suddenly smoking stramonium, sometimes mixed with tobacco, rolled into 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.679 cigars or stuffed into pipes and inhaled for breathing relief 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:47.119 and maybe some interesting visions depending on those unregulated ingredients 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:48.760 and how much of them you smoked. 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.840 Another option, and this was a really inexpensive option for 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:58.320 asthma relief, was inhaling the smoke from burning paper that 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:03.120 contained potassium nitrate and stramonium. It worked as simply as this, 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.400 you'd ignite the paper with a match and then breathe 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:10.200 it in. Some asthmatics using this method may have used 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.400 a paper funnel to direct the smoke to their airways. 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.000 Directions for use seem to vary. This is obviously the 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.160 lowest tech option you can imagine. Today, experts know that 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:26.000 inhaling the smoke of potassium nitrate will not relieve respiratory symptoms, 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.520 and it's actually known to irritate the bronchial mucous membrane, 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.240 the opposite effect of how you'd want to common asthma attack. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.760 Potassium nitrate is also now considered to be quote probably 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.640 carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.040 And then there was something known as asthma powders, which 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.000 were made with stramonium. It really does seem like we've 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.480 found our main character here in this episode, and you 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.720 could buy a can of that at your local store. 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.760 These products were used by placing a bit of powder 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.840 on a piece of plane paper, igniting it, and inhaling 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.079 the fumes. In this instance too, Sometimes pay per funnels 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.280 were used to ensure you were directing the smoke straight 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.400 into your airways. Powders were a really common asthma remedy 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.600 from roughly the eighteen seventies all the way till the 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:15.920 nineteen fifties. 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:20.560 And then people with asthma and other respiratory conditions were 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:25.480 introduced to the asthma cigarette and it was a hit. 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.400 But before we talk about how enormously popular it was, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.280 we're going to take a break for a word from 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.320 our sponsors, and when we return, we will talk about 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:50.320 how people smoked asthma cigarettes far into the twentieth century. 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:56.600 Welcome back to Criminalia. Asthma cigarettes were super popular products, 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.320 but let's not forget what was in them. Let's talk 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:03.280 about stromone and other potentially toxic plant ingredients that people 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:05.280 were inhaling thinking they would help. 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.400 Asthma cigarettes were not only popular, they were also endorsed 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:16.440 by well known and trusted names. Two leading nineteenth century writers, 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.040 for instance, are on that list, the English physician Henry 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:24.160 Hyde Salter, who was himself asthmatic, and the French physician 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.200 Armand Trousseau. And this was also a product that was 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.240 endorsed by the famous French novelist Marcel Proust, who on 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.520 the evening of Saturday August thirty first, nineteen oh one, 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.200 wrote to his mother recounting his struggle with a severe 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:44.080 asthma attack the previous day. From his letter, we quote 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:49.119 misery of miseries or mystery of mysteries. My asthma obliged 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.120 me to walk all doubled up and light anti asthma 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:56.280 cigarettes at every tobacconist's I passed and what's worse, I 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:58.640 haven't been able to go to bed till midnight after 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:03.640 endless fumigation. He had had periodic attacks since he was 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.760 nine years old, in addition to bouts of hay fever, 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:09.840 and he was familiar with his treatment options, and he 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:15.320 had tried a lot of them, including prescribed opium, caffeine, iodine, 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.000 and morphine. The latter had been injected by his father, 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.760 doctor Adrienne Proust. His nose had been cauterized, a procedure 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.440 used in the early twentieth century to help manage allergies. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.680 He had also been prescribed a milk diet at one point, 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.160 and he occasionally visited health resorts such as Evian le 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:40.240 Bin on the shores of Lake Geneva. However, Proust's best 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.480 liked treatment for his symptoms involved the inhalation of smoke 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:45.880 from asthma cigarettes. 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.240 Unlike asthma cigars, you didn't have to really grown. You 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.560 could very conveniently buy a box of pre rolled cigarettes. 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:58.680 Many preparations have inhaled asthma remedies contained a short list 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:03.000 of possible ingredients. It's usually a combination of stramonium, which 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:08.320 is toxic, lobilia also toxic, potassium hydroxide, which is a 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.480 caustic chemical known to damage the upper respiratory tract when inhaled, 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.920 and tobacco, a carcinogen that can cause damage not only 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.440 to your lungs but to your whole body. An early 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.160 recipe for asthma cigarettes dating to the late eighteen hundreds 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.640 called for quote eight parts stramonium leaves, eight parts green 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:33.240 tea leaves, six parts slobilia leaves, and two parts plantain leaves. 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.800 In other recipes you'd often find tobacco, cannabis, and even 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:42.960 some seriously bad stuff like arsenic. It was really a 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:47.800 potpourri of potentially toxic plant materials in there. At that time, 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.520 the perceived efficacy of asthma cigarette ingredients was linked to 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.880 what was believed to be their anti sposmotic properties. They 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.640 were thought to have a calming effect on your airways, 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.720 but they were also known to cause quote grateful forgetfulness 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:06.320 and a balmy oblivion like opiates. So there's that. 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.960 Nothing about these remedies is scandalous, at least not for 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.320 the medical knowledge at the times the treatments were being used. 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.640 This wasn't a case of a guy hawking dubious breathing 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:21.359 therapies at a traveling medicine show, but there was no 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:26.199 shortage of advertisements with all kinds of claims regarding asthma relief. 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.800 In the eighteen eighties. Joy's Cigarettes claimed in one of 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.560 their ads that their product offered quote immediate relief in 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.320 case of asthma, wheezing, and winter cough, and that their 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.960 cigarettes were quote recommended by the most eminent physicians and 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:46.480 medical authors, agreeable to use, certain in their effects and 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.960 harmless in their actions. They may be safely smoked by 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:51.440 ladies and children. 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:57.400 Doctor Blosser's medical cigarettes claimed to relieve quote sudden violent 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.600 asthma attacks quickly by warm vapor which penetrate clogged breathing passages, 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:08.480 loosen phlegm, relieve congestion, and soothe irritated membranes. We won't 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.520 hold our breath on that claim. 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:16.720 In eighteen ninety, an advertisement for Doctor Battie's asthma cigarettes 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:21.480 claimed Doctor Battie's brand would quote effectively treat asthma, hay fever, 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.320 foul breath, all diseases of the throat, head colds, canker saws, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:30.159 and bronchial irritations. Note it also warned against allowing kids 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.159 younger than six years old to use them. Potter's asthma 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.040 cigarettes claimed that they were quote for the relief of 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.880 asthma attacks and other spasmodic affectations of the respiratory tract. 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:46.040 No one, as you may have noticed, advertised what exactly 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.040 you would be inhaling if you tried these products. 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.360 We know most of these asthma cigarettes contained stramonium as 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.639 their active ingredient, and they were considered top of the 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.399 line asthma therapy before the first asthma in haler hit 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.920 the market in nineteen fifty seven, and they perhaps surprisingly 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.199 remained readily available until the mid twentieth century, when they 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:12.560 were phased out amid growing evidence of recreational abuse. Their 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:16.920 ingredients could cause hallucinations as well as problems such as disorientation, 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:23.280 respiratory distress, heart conditions, delusions, seizures, coma, and a high 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.120 enough dose their active ingredients could be fatal. 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:32.000 Let's talk about what asthma cigarettes brought to the table. No, First, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.680 let's talk about those two ingredients that keep coming up 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:40.159 stramonium and black hen beane. Atropine is the thing that 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.640 makes stramonium and black hen beane potent, and it also 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.639 makes them toxic. It's a white alkaloid discovered in eighteen 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.159 thirty three and then isolated in eighteen sixty seven, and 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:55.040 it's the key within those plants to asthma relief, specifically 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:59.960 opening airways. By eighteen seventy nine, with Europeans and America 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:05.359 skins hooked asthma cigarette manufacturers used, it seemed any combination 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.840 of plants containing atropine. An example ingredients list for these 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:14.960 so called medicated cigarettes contained quote stramonium leaves containing alkaloids 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.600 zer point two five percent in finished product, chestnut leaves, 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:24.080 tea leaves, gum, benzoin colon nuts. Clinical studies conducted during 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.560 the nineteen forties. In nineteen fifties, so decades after these 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:33.040 became popular continued to emphasize the therapeutic value of asthma cigarettes, 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.720 wrote researcher h. Herkzheimer in nineteen fifty nine. So after 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:42.120 the introduction of the first modern inhaler, quote, atropine administered 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:46.399 locally in cigarette smoke or wet aerosols increases the vital 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.600 capacity and gives a feeling of relief in cases of 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.760 mild or moderate chronic asthma and emphysema. 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.080 A nineteen eighty study of the popular Potter's brand, which 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.640 we mentioned earlier, concluded that these in gret dience were 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:04.280 all a bunch of ahui and that quote. Although an 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:10.240 asthma cigarette contains approximately zero point six milligrams atropine equivalent alkaloids, 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.600 it is a crude preparation and after smoking, the amount 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:18.960 of active drug reaching the bronchial tree is extremely variable 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.720 and unpredictable. In addition to that, the level of toxin 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.359 was found to vary greatly, not just from brand to brand, 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.639 but cigarette to cigarette. So maybe you had a feeling 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:32.280 of relief, or maybe you needed immediate medical attention. 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.240 Despite the possible benefit and possible side effects of inhaling 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:41.280 atropine over the counter, inhalation therapies were bound to sound 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:45.320 better than doctor prescribed adrenaline shots to anybody that was 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:49.560 living with asthma before the nineteen fifties, those injections were 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.960 one of the very few tools against asthma symptoms that 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:59.000 early twentieth century physicians had. Unlike tobacco based cigarettes, asthma 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:02.760 cigarettes were more of a delivery system for herbal remedies 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:06.359 that hopeful asthmatics hoped might take the edge off of 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:11.400 their discomfort before the invention of albuterol and propellant based inhaler's. 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.679 That is, while the cure for asthma has yet to 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:18.359 be discovered, neither has the cause, but experts do know 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.000 more and more about the condition, including that inhaling smoke, 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.600 whatever kind of smoke that may be, is more likely 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.240 to exacerbate respiratory symptoms than calm them. No matter what 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.680 all of those advertisements may have claimed. 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:39.240 Asthma cigarette, Yeah, you want a little sip of something 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:40.280 that cures what ails you? 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:40.680 Yes? 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:40.879 I do. 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:44.800 I'd rather have that than an asthma cigarette. 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.680 I really love the ingredients lists here, and I particularly 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:57.040 love the one that read eight parts stramonium leaves eight 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.639 parts of green tea leaves, six parts lo be leaves, 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:05.320 and two parts plantain leaves. And that was my starting point. 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:09.639 I'm not making stramonium martinis, but I am making something delicious. 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.680 This is one you build in the shaker. I put 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.600 everything in before I put ice in because I don't 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:19.720 want to over dilute this. Although you will shake it 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:24.000 with ice, but first pour in two ounces of green tea, 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:27.560 so whatever you have that you've made and cooled, one 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:31.400 ounce of lemon juice, one ounce of macha syrup. 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:33.639 Hey have we used that before? 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:39.200 No, we haven't. I bought mine online. Some grocery stores 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.680 carry it. I'm told I haven't found one in my locals, 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:43.920 but it was really easy for me to find online 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:46.320 and get in the matter of two days. Delicious. I'm 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:50.720 gonna use it everything. Then you're gonna add two ounces 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:55.320 of bourbon and a half ounce of banana liqueur. Look, 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:58.120 bananas are not plantains, and I know that, but they 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:01.040 are in the same family, and you don't have a 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:03.000 lot of it in here. Okay. First of all, let 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:06.359 me tell you when you put this all together in 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:10.640 your shaking tint, it smells like heaven. It smells so 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:13.040 good it should be illegal. But then you're gonna add 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:14.760 your ice. You're gonna shake, shake it, and then you're 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:17.479 just gonna strain it over fresh ice. This is one 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:19.040 of my favorite drinks I've made in a long time. 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:21.080 This is probably going to show up at the end 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:26.280 of season discussion. The bourbon flavor gets subsumed. I don't 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:29.040 know where it goes. It's in there, but it's not there. 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:32.720 The banana banana is always tricky. We've talked about it before. 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:35.320 It can really drive the bus and kind of take 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:38.679 over a drink, and the scent of it is very 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:41.480 prominent in this drink. But something about the green tea 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:45.679 undercuts it, and you just get this really beautiful. It 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:48.840 tastes medicinal. It tastes like you're having green tea, you're 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:52.080 lowering your cholesterol. I'm not claiming that it's actually doing that. 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:54.399 I'm just saying it feels like you're doing something healthy. 0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:55.760 Pretend you're breathing better. 0:24:56.520 --> 0:25:01.240 Absolutely spectacularly delicious drink this one. I'm gonna make it 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:06.960 a bunch to make this as a mocktail. You're basically 0:25:07.040 --> 0:25:11.040 gonna do everything normally except instead of bourbon. You will 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:14.040 use a black tea, so it'll be essentially like a 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:17.280 fabulous iced tea at that point. And then you'll use 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:20.600 a half ounce of banana syrup instead of a banana liqueur. 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:24.480 And we're gonna call this the Stramonium Special, even though 0:25:24.480 --> 0:25:28.320 there's no stremonium in it. I had been wanting to 0:25:28.359 --> 0:25:31.000 play with macha syrup for a while, and I kept 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:33.280 putting it off, and then I was like, I think 0:25:33.280 --> 0:25:35.679 today's the day. It was. Then I was very happy 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:40.560 those green tea leaves in that plantain led to delightful inspiration. 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:44.080 If you drink this Stremonium Special, I hope it's delicious. 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:47.000 And we also hope that you join us again next 0:25:47.040 --> 0:25:49.040 week because we're gonna be right back here to talk 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:53.679 more about some wild things people have sold in the 0:25:53.720 --> 0:25:56.760 name of curatives that aren't really gonna do that they say, 0:25:57.119 --> 0:26:00.320 and we'll also have another drink. We hope you join us. 0:26:05.960 --> 0:26:10.000 Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. 0:26:10.400 --> 0:26:14.760 For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:26:14.920 --> 0:26:18.000 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.