The tobacco industry is far more dangerous than many realize as it is one of the major pollutants in the world, from the abandonment of waste mountains to global warming, the WHO said on Tuesday. The World Health Organization blamed the industry for causing widespread deforestation, diverting much-needed land and water from poorer countries away from food production, removing plastic and chemical waste, and emitting millions of tons of carbon dioxide.
In a report released on World No Tobacco Day, the United Nations called on the tobacco industry to address the issue. The report, “Tobacco: poisons our planet“, looks at the effects of the entire cycle, from plant growth to tobacco production, consumption and waste. Although the health effects of tobacco use have been well documented for decades — as smoking still causes over eight million deaths worldwide each year — this report focuses on its wide-ranging environmental impact.
Industry is responsible for the loss of some 600 million trees
The findings were “extremely damaging,” Ruediger Krech, WHO’s director of health promotion, told AFP, criticizing the industry as “one of the most polluting of our knowledge.”The report found that the industry is responsible for the loss of some 600 million trees annually, while tobacco planting and production consumes 200,000 acres [200,000 ha] and 22 billion tons of water annually.It also emits about 84 million tons of carbon dioxide, it said.
4.5 trillion cigarette butts
In addition, “tobacco products are the world’s most abundant substance, containing more than 7,000 toxic chemicals, which enter our environment when disposed of,” Krechsaid. He pointed out that each of the 4.5 trillion cigarettes that end up in the sea, rivers, roads and beaches annually could pollute 100 liters of water. And a quarter of all tobacco growers suffer from so-called raw tobacco, or nicotine-toxic nicotine that they ingest. Farmers who carry tobacco leaves all day eat the equivalent of 50 nicotine cigarettes a day, Krech said.
This is of particular concern to many children who are involved in tobacco farming.”Imagine a 12-year-old child receiving 50 cigarettes a day,” he said. Most tobacco is grown in poor countries, where water and agricultural resources are scarce, and where such crops are often grown without the need for basic food production, the report says. Tobacco farming is also responsible for about 5 percent of the world’s deforestation, and it is depleting its precious water resources.
Plastic contamination
At the same time the processing and transport of tobacco plays a vital role in the emission of pollutants worldwide — about one fifth of the global carbon footprint industry. In addition, products such as tobacco, smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes also have a significant impact on the globalization of plastic pollution, warns WHO. Cigarette filters contain microplastic — tiny fragments found in all oceans and even under the world’s deepest trench — and form the second-largest type of plastic pollution worldwide, the report said.
And yet, despite the marketing of the tobacco industry, the WHO emphasized that there are no evidence filters that offer any guaranteed health benefits by smoking raw tobacco. The UN has called on policymakers around the world to treat cigarettes as a single-use plastic bag, and to consider closing them.
It also lamented that taxpayers around the world were paying high prices for sanitation in the tobacco industry. Each year, for example, China buys $ 2.6 billion and India $ 766 billion, while Brazil and Germany pay $ 200 million each to clean up discarded tobacco, the report found.
The WHO stressed that many countries should adhere to the so-called Polluter Pays Principle, such as France and Spain.It is important, says Krech, that “the industry pays for the pollution they create.”
For more Read: https://phys.org/news/2022-05-big-tobacco-environmental-impact-devastating.html and https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-tobacco-free-nicotine-non-smokers-e-cigarettes.html
