In a damning report from the World Health Organization (WHO) entitled Tobacco: Poisoning our Planet, the WHO reveals the devastating effects of the tobacco industry despite their continued empty propaganda regarding doing better for the environment…because let’s face it, they are not doing better for your health no matter what.

To start, the main places tobacco is grown in the world are in low and middle-income countries where the industry hog up the majority of the much needed water and farmland to produce food and funnel it to grow their deadly products.

Next, the tobacco industry is should be a public enemy #1 in so many aspects. Every year, big tobacco alone is responsible for effecting 8 million human lives, cutting down 600 million tress, wasting 200,000 hectares of land, wasting 22 billion tons of water (3.5x the water volume of Lake Chad in Central Africa), and emission of 84 million tons of carbon dioxide. Additionally, they produce up to 55 megatonnes of waste water and 25 megatonnes of solid waste.

Also highlighted is your smoking, if you’re a smoker, you’re contributing to leaching over 7000 toxic chemicals into the environment and wasting 4.5 trillion cigarette butts and filters decimating oceans, rivers, city sidewalks, park grounds, sewage system, soil, and beaches.

Thinking that you do e-cigarettes or vapes makes you some sort of better person, that’s delusional thinking. Cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes add 2 million tonnes of waste from their packaging including single use plastic, metal, and electronic waste.

The WHO’s report urges countries to get out of the tobacco racket. Smoking is a disgusting habit that’s killing you, the people around you, and the planet that sustains all of us. Man up, quit if you use tobacco products and help stand up against this monstrosity of an industry; be a hero for once in your life.

World Health Organization. Tobacco: Poisoning Our Planet. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240051287