This Wednesday, May 31, Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) presented its report on how cigarette smoking affects the global environment.
World No Tobacco Day, included in the list of world and international days of the UN, was officially proclaimed by WHO in 1988. Its theme for 2017, " Tobacco: A Threat to Development smoking and to "intensify efforts to control tobacco as part of the implementation of the 2017 Agenda for Sustainable Development". 2030". According to the World Health Organization, "tobacco control can break the cycle of poverty, contribute to the eradication of hunger, promote sustainable agriculture and economic growth, and counteract climate change."
The organization's 72-page report Tobacco and its Impact on the Environment: An Overview ( PDF in English ) includes input from scientists in the US, Canada, Germany, and Australia. Some interesting facts from this study and the WHO press release on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day:
- Tobacco kills over 7 million people a year and is the largest preventable cause of death. In 2012, about 967 million smokers in the world consumed 6.25 trillion cigarettes per year.
- About 80% of premature deaths due to tobacco use occur in low- and middle-income countries.
- Annually, 11.4 million metric tons of wood is consumed just for drying tobacco (as fuel), not including additional costs for the production of cigarette paper and packaging for end products.
- Just for drying tobacco leaves, one tree is burned for every 300 cigarettes produced in the world.
- In most countries, tobacco contributes only marginally to deforestation (according to the mid-90s, an average of about 5%), but there are notable exceptions - according to 2008 data in Malawi (East Africa), the tobacco industry was responsible for 70% of the loss forests of the country.
- 4.3 million hectares of land are used annually to grow tobacco , accounting for 2 to 4% of global deforestation.
- About 10 times more cigarettes are smoked in China than in any other country. China National Tobacco Company (CNTC) produces about 44% of all cigarettes consumed in the world, but has no publicly available reports on its impact on the environment.
- The cumulative annual energy consumption of tobacco companies is equivalent to the construction of about 2 million cars.
- Each year, tobacco smoking brings into the atmosphere 3-6 thousand metric tons of formaldehyde, 17-47 thousand metric tons of nicotine, 3-5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
- The tobacco industry generates over 2 million tons of solid waste . Two-thirds of all cigarettes smoked end up on the ground, which means 340-680 million kilograms of garbage annually, and tobacco products contain more than 7,000 toxic chemicals that accumulate in the environment in this way. Hazardous chemicals from discarded cigarette butts include nicotine, arsenic and heavy metals, which are especially dangerous to aquatic life including fish.
To solve these problems, the World Health Organization proposes its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC; WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control), originally adopted back in 2003. Its fifth part is entirely devoted to protecting the environment and includes such measures as mandatory submission of detailed environmental reports by tobacco companies, ensuring the protection of people from tobacco smoke, regulation of the contents of tobacco products, raising awareness of the consequences of smoking, bans on advertising of tobacco products, introduction responsibility for tobacco companies for the environmental consequences of their activities, etc. The WHO's $1 tax increase on cigarettes will bring about $190 billion to the world that can be spent on development.
See also anekdotig:
- Newsletter: " WHO: China No. 1 in absolute mortality from air pollution, Ukraine No. 1 in relative " (September 27, 2016)
- Article: " Loss of forest - loss of life ."
- Article: Ecological Footprint: How Many Planets Do We Need? »