Corrupting the environment: Questioning the tobacco industry footprints

Do you know that the 6mm tobacco rolled and pursed between your lips is slowly killing the planet? From the deforestation stage to producing third-hand smoke materials pollutants, the life cycle of a cigarette has been a constant contributor to the environmental degradation process at each step from cultivation to consumption. 

World No Tobacco Day, 2022, aims to uplift the theme of ‘protecting the environment from tobacco as a threat’, and to question the industry as a whole. According to reports, each day 10 million cigarettes are purchased per minute, and 15 billion are sold per day, worldwide. The numbers and statistics should alarm us with the acknowledgment that we have only one earth. Since 1999, WHO reports have highlighted the escalating numbers in the consumption and production of tobacco. Tobacco production brings along a variety of environmental degradation factors such as land quality deterioration, biodiversity being affected by losses, the outflow of greenhouse gases, plastic usage for packaging, and more such lack of standardized practices are byproducts of filling smoke in the lungs. On average, a regular smoker consumes about eight cigarettes a day. Further, about 22.3% of the world population accounts for regular consumption producing 4.5 trillion butts which are tiny rolls of toxins leaving behind a long-term trail of environmental as well as health impacts. 

However, to overcome the adversities, WHO in the year 2007 introduced the MPOWER plan. MPOWER implements policies to regulate the consumption and supply chain in the industry. 

• M- Monitor the usage of tobacco and the relative prevention policies 
• P- Protect consumers from tobacco consumption 
• O- Offering help to quitting 
• W- Warning statements in regards to the adverse effects 
• E- Enforcement of banning promotional channels of tobacco 
• R- Raising taxes on the tobacco industry to push toward controlled consumption groups 

On a daily basis, we can observe the evolving culture of young adults inclining toward the usage of tobacco. “Every day, I sell out about 35 to 40 boxes of cigarettes along with chai. Most of my regular customers are college students and young adults. Most of the time, they lose track of time and how many cigarettes they have purchased from my shop in a span of one to two hours. However, being in this paan galla business for the last 10 years, I have seen several people starting to smoke tobacco and also quitting the consumption while some still struggle to resist the urge.” stated a paan shop owner, Hari, from the city. 

In a recent clean-up drive at the Kotna beach in Vadodara, cigarette butts were the highest amount of waste picked up apart from other articles. The tobacco product wastes (TPW) amount to a large number of toxins released in the water bodies posing as a life threat to the aquatic beings. The current tobacco consumption epidemic is causing enduring consequences which are already surfacing in the form of environmental damages we can’t put to repair if we don’t act now. Quitting the consumption of tobacco is always a step closer to a healthier environment, body, and mind.