ANR UPDATE, 27(4), Winter 2008

Tobacco's Environmental Toll

Throughout a cigarette’s lifespan – from planting tobacco to disposing of the butt – the health of the environment is severely compromised. Here are just a few ways in which tobacco is killing the planet:

Deforestation: Scientists believe large scale deforestation is changing our climate and contributing to global warming. Every year millions of trees are cut to grow tobacco, to cure tobacco leaves, and for paper to roll and package cigarettes. It’s estimated that one tree is consumed for every 300 cigarettes produced – that’s a tree for every 1-½ cartons. Considering 5.6 trillion cigarettes are produced annually worldwide, tobacco devours about 18.6 billion trees every year.

Fires: Smoking poses an additional threat to our forests. It is estimated that up to one-third of all forest fires are caused by careless smokers. Additionally, smoking is the leading cause of fatal fires - responsible for one of every four fire deaths.

Litter: Every year 4.5 trillion cigarettes are discarded on our sidewalks, beaches, parks, and other public places. Many smokers carelessly discard their butts believing they’re biodegradable. However, filters made of cellulose acetate can take several months to 15 years to break down (they do not biodegrade). As filters break down, they leach toxic chemicals into watersheds, streams, lakes, and oceans. Imagine – just two cigarette butts have enough nicotine to kill a water flea (a planktonic animal critical to aquatic ecosystems) and 200 have enough to kill an adult.

Pollution: Significant levels of CO2 are released into the atmosphere during the curing process. Also, tobacco plants are prone to many diseases and require multiple applications of pesticides and herbicides (e.g. Aldrin, Dieldrin, DDT, Methyl Bromide). These chemicals may run off and contaminate water sources, as well as lead to resistance in insects making the control of malaria and other diseases more difficult. Cigarette manufacturing also produces large quantities of waste including tobacco slurries, solvents, oils, greases, paper, wood, plastics, packaging materials, airborne pollution, and toxic chemicals.

World Hunger: More than 840 million people worldwide are malnourished and 799 million of them live in the developing world. It is estimated that by 2010, nearly 90% of the world’s tobacco production will occur in developing nations. This means that in areas where food is already scarce, tobacco growing will continue to divert very limited resources and land away from growing crops to feed people.

Smokefree laws have been shown to help people quit smoking and that those who continue smoke fewer cigarettes. These laws are a great way to reduce demand for tobacco products and subsequently reduce their environmental impact. Also, the Audubon Society reported that smokefree beach laws in Southern California resulted in a 45% reduction in cigarette litter.

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