Relax, I promise this is not a lecture lesson about Tobacco and its effects but let us talk about the World No Tobacco Day.
World No Tobacco Day is observed on May 31 to raise awareness of the damages caused by consuming tobacco. Annually, tobacco kills more than 480,000 deaths annually both from active smokers and passive smokers. Among them is 278,544 deaths men while women are 201,773. Besides the human cost, consuming tobacco also causes the environment to degrade.
Tobacco consumption is one of the factors that are believed to unfavourably impact the efforts put to achieve the UN–adopted sustainable development agenda by 2030, which aims to reduce tobacco-related deaths by one-third by that time.
This year’s theme is ‘Protect the Environment’ As per The World Health Organization (WHO). Although the effects of tobacco majorly concentrate on the danger it possesses on human beings, the harmful impact of the tobacco industry on the environment is vast and growing adding unnecessary pressure to our planet’s already scarce resources and fragile ecosystems.
The Key Messages passed on Tobacco Day
Tobacco harms the environment
Tobacco growing, manufacturing and using poison our water, soil, beaches and city streets with chemicals, toxic waste, cigarette butts, including microplastics, and e-cigarette waste. Don’t fall for the tobacco industry’s attempt to try and distract from its environmental harms by greenwashing their products through donations to sustainability initiatives and reporting on environmental “standards” they often set themselves.
Make the tobacco industry clean up their mess
The tobacco industry is making a profit by destroying the environment and needs to be held accountable for the environmental destruction and made to pay for the waste and damages, including recovering the cost of collecting these wastes.
Quit tobacco to save our planet
Tobacco smoke contributes to higher air pollution levels and contains three kinds of greenhouse gases.
Help tobacco farmers switch to sustainable crops
Governments and policymakers should support tobacco farmers to switch to alternative, more sustainable livelihoods to reduce the environmental impact of tobacco growing, curing and manufacturing while continuing to implement tobacco control measures.
As a result of the diverse effects caused by tobacco, WHO suggests quitting using, growing and manufacturing tobacco for the sake of our environment.