WHO Raised Alarm On Impact Of Tobacco Industry On Environment

The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed new information on the extent to which the tobacco is damaging both the human health and environment, which has been calling for the steps to make the industry more accountable for the damage and destruction it has been causing.

According to the reports, every year, the tobacco industry is costing the world with more than 8 million human lives along with 600 million trees and 200,000 hectares of the land, 22 billion tonnes of water and over 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The majority of the tobacco has been grown in the low and middle income countries where the farmland and water are needed more often for the purpose of producing food for the region. Instead of this, they are being used for growing the dangerous tobacco plants as more and more land has been getting cleared of the forests.

The WHO report known as Tobacco: Poisoning Our Plant has been stating that, the carbon footprint of the tobacco industry starting from the production, processing and transportation of the tobacco has been equivalent to around one-fifth of the carbon dioxide that is produced by the commercial airline industry every year.

Dr. Ruediger Krech, director of health promotion at WHO said, the tobacco products are the most littered items on the planet, which contains more than 7000 toxic chemicals, which has been leeching into their environment when they are discarded.