Mountains of pollution, emissions contributing to climate change… The World Health Organization (WHO) underlined on Tuesday that the tobacco industry, beyond its impact on public health, is causing considerable environmental damage.
The tobacco industry is "one of the biggest polluters we know", according to WHO director for health promotion, Rüdiger Krech, who presents a report with "rather disastrous" conclusions.
The document, titled “Tobacco, Poison for Our Planet,” looks at the environmental footprint of the sector as a whole, from growing the plants to manufacturing tobacco products, including consumption and waste.
While the industry is responsible for the loss of 600 million trees, tobacco growing uses 200,000 hectares of land and 22 billion tons of water every year.
It also emits around 84 million tonnes of CO2.
"Tobacco products, which are the most frequently thrown away litter on the planet, contain more than 7,000 chemical compounds which, once thrown away, spread into the environment", continues Rüdiger Krech.
Each of the 4.5 trillion cigarette butts that end up in nature every year can pollute up to 100 liters of water, he points out.
Health hazard for growers
The health hazards of tobacco are not limited to consumption and waste: almost a quarter of tobacco growers suffer from green tobacco sickness, a form of nicotine poisoning through the skin.
In constant contact with tobacco leaves, these growers consume the equivalent of the nicotine contained in 50 cigarettes a day, explains Rüdiger Krech, who points out that the sector employs a large number of children.
“Just imagine: a 12-year-old child exposed to 50 cigarettes a day,” he concludes.
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According to the report, tobacco is often grown in rather poor countries, where water and cultivated land are often scarce, and where these crops take the place of crucial food production.
Tobacco cultivation is also responsible for about 5% of deforestation worldwide, and contributes to the depletion of precious water reserves.
The second largest source of plastic pollution in the world
A significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions also comes from tobacco processing and transportation, the equivalent of one-fifth of the carbon footprint of air travel.
The WHO also warns about tobacco-derived products (cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes) which contribute significantly to the accumulation of plastic pollution in the world.
Cigarette filters contain traces of micro-plastics, these small fragments found in oceans around the world, including at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest in the world, making it the second largest source of pollution. plastic in the world.
Contrary to what the tobacco industry claims, there is no evidence that these filters have a beneficial effect on health, underlines the WHO.
The WHO also laments that the gigantic costs of cleaning up tobacco industry waste are borne by taxpayers around the world.
According to the report, China spends about 2.6 billion dollars (about 2.47 billion euros) each year to treat waste from tobacco products.
For India, the bill amounts to 766 million dollars (about 730 million euros), while Brazil and Germany must pay 200 million dollars each (about 190 million euros) .
The WHO therefore insists that more countries follow the example of France and Spain by adopting the polluter-pays principle.
For Rüdiger Krech, it is important that “industry really pays for the damage it is creating.
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