Tobacco use kills more than 8 million people per year, according to the United Nations, which declared Tuesday ‘World No Tobacco Day.’ The World Health Organization has also said that 600,000,000 trees are cut down, 84,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide is discharged into the atmosphere, and 22,000,000,000 tonnes of water is used up.
According to the WHO, tobacco usage has a negative influence on the environment across the world. The World Health Organization states in a fact sheet that it is connected to large-scale deforestation and biodiversity loss, especially animals. It is also responsible for “exhaustion of fossil fuel and metal resources” in addition to depletion of the planet’s water. “Desertification and soil fertility depletion,” it claims.
Among the issues are “exuberant emission of greenhouse gases, pollution of drinking water, and emission of toxicants into the air via direct, second-, and third-hand smoking.”
The environment confronts a new threat since cigarette butts are non-biodegradable, according to the WHO information sheet, which also mentions the destruction of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
On World No Tobacco Day, Australia’s Cancer Council released some intriguing data that emphasize the difficulties smokers experience in quitting. “Around two-thirds of Australian smokers engaged in at least one action to assist them in quitting in 2019, yet we recognize that quitting is a difficult challenge. “An integrated multi-channel public education campaign would not only inspire and support existing smokers to stop, but it would also play a key role in de-normalizing tobacco use and deterring uptake among young people,” according to the report.
