Tobacco’s negative implications for health are well known, but what is less often discussed is the harmful effects it has on the health of our planet. The fact is that tobacco is just as catastrophic for the environment as it is for people. In all its stages, from production and distribution to waste, tobacco presents a huge environmental issue.
Moreover, tobacco production is threatening to deepen the food security crisis we are currently experiencing on a global scale. Which is why the World Health Organization is dedicating this year’s World No Tobacco Day campaign to creating awareness of the importance of using our lands to sustainably grow food, instead of tobacco.
The WHO has warned that scarce fertile soil is being used, specially in low and middle income countries, to grow tobacco, which means thousands of acres of forests are being destroyed and polluted.
In addition to deepening the food security crisis, tobacco production leads to long term ecological damages and to climate change. Here we outline 4 ways in which tobacco is deteriorating the environment:
- Global warming: Each year around 200.000 hectares of land are deforested in order to grow tobacco. The trees cut down to make way for tobacco growing make up 5% of global deforestation. Therefore, production and consumption of tobacco contributes to global warming by releasing 80 million tonnes of CO2 into the environment annually, the equivalent of driving 17 million gasoline-powered cars each year.
- Degradation of fertile soil: Tobacco growing requires intensive use of insecticides and fertilizers, which degrade the soil and contaminate rivers, lakes and drinking water. Also, lands that are used to grow tobacco see a dramatic reduction in soil fertility, meaning they can’t later be used for food crops.
- Loss of biodiversity: Deforestation caused by tobacco production fragments and deteriorates our ecosystems, which causes a significant loss of biodiversity. Plus, the chemicals used in growing tobacco pollute water sources, killing fish and other animals that rely on them to stay alive.
- Pollution: Tobacco pollutes our soil, water and air throughout its lifecycle: from the 2 million tonnes of packaging waste it generates and the billions of cigarette butts that end up in the ocean each year, to the dangerous chemicals released by these when they start to decompose.
Therefore, as the WHO warns, “tobacco’s impact on the environment occurs at various stages (...). Each of these stages has negative implications for the environment, including the use of precious resources such as water and trees and the creation of pollutants through manufacturing.” That’s why World No Tobacco Day goes beyond protecting our health and prioritizes protecting the future of our Planet.