Tobacco consumption is a serious global public health problem, causing the deaths of 8 million people each year. But what is the impact of tobacco on the environment? As we are currently celebrating No Tobacco Month, we take a look back at a little-known ecological scandal.
When we think of tobacco, we first think of pollution, and the figures are staggering. Every year around the world, we smoke 9 trillion cigarettes. This causes a cloud of smoke comparable to all the fires in California over a year. But the most serious thing is that half of these cigarettes, namely 4.5 trillion of them, end up in nature. However, each cigarette butt contains between 4000 and 7000 toxic products.
We are therefore witnessing a real ecological catastrophe according to Thomas Similowski, professor of pulmonology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris: “ In cigarette filters, there is cellulose, and therefore a lot of micro-plastics. So, when you throw a cigarette butt in nature or in the street, you throw away a small thing that contains lots of various toxic chemicals, which will eventually end up in the oceans. Ultimately, this represents the primary source of micro-plastics in the oceans.”
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The environmental impact of tobacco production and transport
Tobacco cultivation is very water intensive. According to the WHO, the tobacco industry causes the loss of 22 billion tonnes of water each year. Water which is therefore not used for food crops even though the needs are enormous. But the cultivation of this plant also causes massive deforestation according to Professor Thomas Similowski: “ We deforest 600 million trees per year to plant tobacco, so there is a big impact on biodiversity. And we also have to talk about CO2 emissions. There are considerable sources of production. To dry tobacco, you have to smoke it. Processing plants consume a lot of electricity. Then you have to transport it, which requires boats, then trucks. In fact, when we look at all the things we should not do from an energy and environmental point of view, we find them all in tobacco.”
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Each year, according to the WHO, the tobacco industry is responsible for emitting 84 million tonnes of CO2. The carbon footprint that comes from the production, processing and transport of tobacco is equivalent to 1/5th of the CO2 produced by air transport every year. Without tobacco, one in five planes would not fly. Seen like this, we better understand the issues linked to the production and transport of tobacco. On cigarette packets it is written: Smoking kills. When will the inscription be added: and permanently poisons the environment?
