The World Health Organization has called for steps to end the devastating effects of tobacco to the environment and human health.
WHO made this call on Tuesday, in commemoration of the World No Tobacco Day.
The organization revealed that every year the tobacco industry reportedly 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.
It further revealed that the majority of tobacco grown in low-and-middle-income countries, take up water and farmlands which are desperately needed to produce food for the region and rather convert it to growing deadly tobacco plants, while more and more land is also being cleared of forests.
In a report titled “Tobacco: Poisoning our planet,” WHO highlighted that the industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming.
The report also said that “Tobacco products are the most littered item on the planet, containing over 7,000 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.
Dr Krech said despite tobacco industry marketing, there is no evidence that filters have any proven health benefits.
