Latest update January 23rd, 2025 7:40 AM
WHO says tobacco industry poisoning planet
– Calls for action to hold industry accountable
Kaieteur News – In a recent report, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted how the tobacco industry is not only harmful to human health but it is also poisoning the planet.
The report titled ‘Tobacco: Poisoning our planet’ was released on May 31, 2022, World No Tobacco Day.
According to the report, tobacco harms people’s health directly through use and exposure to second-hand smoke and through its negative impact on the environment.
It was stated too that tobacco’s impact on the environment occurs at various stages, including growing and cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal of tobacco products – with each stage having negative implications for the environment, including the use of precious resources such as water and trees and the creation of pollutants through manufacturing.
Furthermore, the report highlights how tobacco use remains a lethal habit, with an estimated eight million people dying each year due to its use and added to the millions of lives being lost; the tobacco industry costs the world: 600 million trees, 22 billion tonnes of water and produces 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year.
As it relates to the production and consumption of tobacco, which contributes to global warming, the releasing of 84 million tonnes of CO2 into the environment each year is equivalent of driving 17 million gasoline-powered cars each year.
Moreover, WHO’s Senior Health Expert, Dr. Ruediger Krech, during a Geneva news briefing stated that not only does tobacco use causes millions of human lives to be lost but smoking also has an impact on the planet, causing deforestation, water waste, air pollution, and littered beaches, parks and city sidewalks.
Dr. Krech warned, “Tobacco is not only poisoning people, it’s poisoning our planet.” It was explained that cigarette butts with filters are the most commonly littered item worldwide, with an astounding 4.5 trillion being littered each year.
“Every one of these cigarette butts pollute up to a hundred liters of water,” Dr. Krech said. He stated too, that the consequences of tobacco use have moved from being a human problem to a planetary problem. To this end he said, “Tobacco can no longer be categorized simply as a health threat, it is a threat to human development as a whole.”
The WHO is calling on policy-makers to treat cigarette filters, as single use plastic, and to consider banning cigarette filters to protect public health and the environment. The organisation is also calling on governments to consider banning cigarette filters as they do not have any proven health benefits. The organisation has also appealed for the tobacco industry to be held accountable for the detrimental impact the tobacco industry has on human health, economies, societies and the environment.
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