World No Tobacco Day can Protect Environment

By – Dr. N. Munal Meitei
May 31 is World No Tobacco Day observed since 1987. This year’s theme, “Unmasking the appeal: exposing industry tactics on tobacco and nicotine products” carries immense significance to modern world to fight against tobacco from children, youths and future generation.
The tobacco industry delves to hook the next generation. An estimated 37 million children aged 13-15 years worldwide use tobacco. Flavours are found in many nicotine and tobacco products which are highly addictive and potential health complications rising among adolescents. This not only threatens their immediate health but paves the way for a lifetime affect.
The tobacco industry faced declining due to increase public awareness and this has led them to target children and youths with many available means. With sophisticated and insidious tactics, the industry today exploits the pervasiveness of social media with brand influencer to glamorizes youths for tobacco use. Flavored e-cigarettes is another design to appeal them. While the world is inviting the students and youths to come forward for environmental protection, the tobacco industries are leveraging them.
Smoking harms nearly every bodily part and organ system and smokers die 6 to10 years earlier than their non-smoking counterparts. Smoking makes it harder for a woman to get pregnant and risk of miscarriage, having low birth weight and babies born with a cleft lip. Men who smoke are at greater risk of erectile dysfunction.
There is no safe level for smoking. The longer a smoker’s duration, the greater is the injury. Smoking even just one cigarette per day can cause smoking-related deaths. While on smoking, the heart rate, blood pressure and the level of blood CO2 increases, reducing the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. Earlier people thought smoking is risky for respiratory diseases and lungs but smoking also causes multifarious diseases. Tobacco kills more people than tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria combined worldwide.
Tobacco smoke contains many harmful chemicals both for smokers and nonsmokers. Mortality rates among smokers are about 3 times higher than who never smoked. Among 7000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful and at least 69 can cause cancer. Every cigarette smoked or tobacco products pollute and diminish our natural environment.
India with 11.2% of world’s total smokers is at the 2nd rank and tobacco kill about 1.34 million Indian every year. It is estimated that about 29% of the adult Indian smoke tobacco and other smokeless products like khaini, gutkha and zarda. As per a report, smokers in India consumed an average of 8.2 cigarettes per day and thus the country smoked annually more than 6 trillion. The total costs of tobacco equate to 1.04% of the country’s GDP and direct medical costs of tobacco related amount to 5.3% of the total health expenditure.
Tobacco use in Manipur is significantly higher with over 55.1% of the population engaging in some form of smoking and non-smoke tobacco consumption exceeding the national average of 29%. This includes with Pan quid zarda among womenfolk and khaini/gugka among the men.
The tobacco industry damages the Environment far beyond the effects of the smoke that put into the air. Long after a cigarette has been extinguished, it continues to cause environmental damage in the form of non-biodegradable butts – millions of kilograms of which are discarded every year.
Tobacco industry has the impact to the triple planetary crisis of the climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. According to WHO, about 3.5 million hectares of land are cleared for growing tobacco each year. Tobacco cultivation not only causes ‘Green Tobacco Sickness’ but results in soil degradation, making it infertile to support the growth of other crops. India is the second-largest tobacco producer with 9% after China. According to ICAR, in India around 766,000 tons of tobacco is produced in 2020 over 40 lakh hectares. The sector provides jobs to millions of people and contributes as much as Rs. 22737 crores as excise duty and Rs. 5969 crores in foreign exchange. But the total economic costs attributed to tobacco use from all diseases in India for persons aged 35 and above amounted to Rs. 177341 crores.
The environmental impact of tobacco cultivation is enormous. Tobacco is a very nutrient-hungry crop and it depletes soil nutrients more rapidly. Tobacco growing and manufacturing poisoned our water, air, soil and pollutes the beaches and city streets with chemicals, toxic waste, cigarette butts, including micro plastics and e-cigarette waste. Tobacco cultivation requires large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides which degrade the overall environment. Tobacco cultivation being mainly a mono-crop, enhance soil erosion, fertility and biodiversity lost.
To cope with tobacco menace, Government of India enacted the “Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Acts 2003” which include the prohibition of smoking in public places, advertisement of cigarettes and other tobacco products, sale of cigarettes or other tobacco products to anyone below the age of 18 years and prohibition of selling areas like Schools, Colleges. Under National Tobacco Control Progamme and Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, farmers are encouraged to replace tobacco crop with other alternatives like sugarcane, onion, maize, groundnut and soybean farming.
The tobacco industry is adding pressure to our planet’s already scarce resources and fragile ecosystem. With tobacco industries, 600 million trees are cut to make cigarette rolling papers which responsible for 5% of all global deforestation, emitting 84 megatons of CO2emission.The industry consumed 22 billion litres of water and burned 11.4 million metric tons of wood to cure tobacco annually challenging the climate and ecosystem. Collection of tendu leaf also damages forests.
Now, tobacco can no longer be categorized simply as a health threat to individual – it is a threat to entire humanity and the planet. It is not just about the lives of smokers but its takes on the fate of everyone. Reducing tobacco consumption is the key for overall environmental health. Therefore, let’s celebrate World No Tobacco Day for our own health and Environment.
(Environmentalist, presently working as DFO/Chandel, [email protected])