Everyone knows the impact that smoking has on health, but every year, cigarette litter makes a huge impact on the environment.  Tobacco cultivation also has serious environmental costs:

Diversion of land

Developing countries produce more than two-thirds of the world’s tobacco. It has been estimated that tobacco replaces the place of food crops that could feed an estimated 10-20 million people. Where food supplies must be imported because rich farmland is being diverted to tobacco production, the government will have to bear the higher costs of imported food to feed the poor and hungry.

Deforestation

Deforestation caused by tobacco curing contributes to soil erosion, desertification and flooding, in addition to the greenhouse effect and global warming. One in 25 trees in the world is cut down to cure tobacco.

Brazil, the fourth largest producer of tobacco, cures all its crop by burning wood (there are some 93 360 curing barns in Brazil), as does most of Africa, much of India, Thailand and the Philippines. Pakistan annually consumes 1.5 million cubic meters of wood for tobacco curing. Fluewood curing requires about 1 tree per 300 cigarettes.

Paper wrapping/packaging

Cigarette wrapping and packaging involves the heavy use of paper. A modern cigarette-manufacturing machine uses 4 miles of paper per hour. Paper is also used for cigarette advertising materials and even for health education materials needed to prevent or reduce tobacco use.

Pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers

Tobacco requires heavy and persistent applications of biocides (pesticides and herbicides) throughout its growing season. Most of these are toxic and some are carcinogenic, readily finding their way into village water supplies as well as having the potential to affect those agricultural workers who use them.

Creation of rubbish

Most cigarettes require a match and every cigarette leaves a butt. Coverings from packets and empty packets are also discarded. The cost of clearing up the billions of cigarettes smoked daily in developing countries has never been estimated.

Discarded cigarette packaging, foil and butts account for 43% of all litter in South Australia, most of which is found in public places. Almost 1 in 3 butts end up as litter.

Eventually, most of these make their way into the storm-water drains through wind or rain, and end up in our creeks and rivers and on our beaches. Across Australia it has been estimated that around 4 billion butts enter waterways and 3 billion are deposited on land each year. Butts contain toxic chemicals such as lead, nicotine and cadmium, which leach out into the water, poisoning freshwater and marine life. Butts can take more than 5 years to breakdown in water.

Environmental impact of indoor smoking 

Passive smoking is one of the largest sources of indoor air pollution, and the environmental impact ranges from the damaging effects upon property and fire risk to the risk of passive smoking.

Fires

Data from most countries show that between one quarter and one-third of fires are caused by careless smoking. Cigarettes are a particularly high fire risk because chemicals are added to keep them burning when left alone. This cost may not only be measured in loss of human life, but in damage to housing, factories, woodland, forests and other property.

A smouldering cigarette butt flicked from a motor vehicle into dried grass can start a grassfire or even a bushfire. It has been estimated that cigarettes and smokers’ paraphernalia cause around 4,500 fires every year.

Source: Tobacco the Truth is out there

Further Information:
Clean Up Australia www.cleanup.com.au