TOBACCO HARMFUL TO THE ENVIRONMENT

BY CYNTHIA NKHATA

25/11/2022

Tobacco products harm the environment in ways that go beyond air pollution and cigarette litter, the process growing tobacco, manufacturing tobacco products and delivering them to retailers causes severe and irreversible damage to the environment.

Every year the tobacco industry costs the world more than 8 million human lives, 600 million trees, 200 000 hectares of land , 22 billion tonnes of water and 84 million tonnes of CO2.

" Tobacco contributes to environmental degradation, poses significant threats to sustainable development, Tobacco free Association Zambia Chairperson Dr Fastone Goma said,"

Dr Goma said that it is not just about the lives of smokers and those around them, or even those involved in tobacco production but what is at stake is the fate of an entire planet.

"From start to finish, the tobacco life cycle is overwhelming polluting and damaging process," States a 2017 world Health organisation report.

Tobacco is mainly grown in big farmland which can be used to grown enough food but Instead, they are being used to grow deadly tobacco plants, while more and more land is being cleared of forests.

The WHO report “Tobacco: Poisoning our planet” highlights that the industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming. 

"Tobacco products are the most littered item on the planet, containing over 7000 toxic chemicals, which leech into our environment when discarded. Roughly 4.5 trillion cigarette filters pollute our oceans, rivers, city sidewalks, parks, soil and beaches every year,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO.

Products like cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes also add to the build-up of plastic pollution. Cigarette filters contain microplastics and make up the second-highest form of plastic pollution worldwide.

Despite tobacco industry marketing, there is no evidence that filters have any proven health benefits. WHO calls on policy-makers to treat cigarette filters, as what they are, single use  plastics, and consider banning cigarette filters to protect public health and the environment.

An estimated 11.4 million metric tons of wood are burned to cure tobacco every year.

Cigarette butts are the largest single type of litter by count and their filters do not biodegrade.

Additionally, tobacco product packaging creates 2 million tons of waste per year.

The environmental and health impacts of tobacco are vast and growing, and are particularly harmful to low- and middle-income countries.Cultivation of tobacco for human consumption poses significant challenges to the environment, Tobacco Free Association of Zambia Chairperson Brenda Chitindi has said.

She said the resulting environmental damage, in turn, has adverse consequences for economies and human health.

According to National Cancer Institute, the extensive burning of forests for tobacco growing in many LMICs also produces greenhouse gases of significant concern for the environment, including carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide.

There is overwhelming evidence that tobacco devastates the environment, with enormous implications for local communities as well as on a global scale.

A CALL TO ACTION- there is need for government to make steps the industry more accountable for the destruction it is causing.

Government also needs to enact the tobacco control bill so that it can protect the public from the devastating health, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to its smoke. Once It is enacted into law, it would provide guidelines of tobacco products, devices, and nicotine inhalant products  remember a HEALTHY nation is a wealthy nation.

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