Plastic Waste: WHO Calls For More Accountability In Tobacco Industry

The World Health Organization has released fresh information on the extent to which tobacco damages both the environment and human health while also calling for steps to make the industry more accountable for the damages it is causing.

The health agency made the call in a report on Tuesday, where it mentioned that the tobacco industry costs the world more than 8 million human lives, 600 million trees, 200 000 hectares of land, 22 billion tonnes of water, and 84 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

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The majority of tobacco is grown in low-and-middle-income countries, where water and farmland are often desperately needed to produce food for the region. Instead, they are being used to grow deadly tobacco plants, while more and more land is being cleared of forests.

Dr. Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO said, “Tobacco products are the most littered item on the planet, containing over 7000 toxic chemicals, which leech into our environment when discarded. Roughly 4.5 trillion cigarette filters pollute our oceans, rivers, city sidewalks, parks, soil, and beaches every year”

The agency said cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes also add to the build-up of plastic pollution as cigarette filters contain microplastics and make up the second-highest form of plastic pollution worldwide.

WHO is also calling on policy-makers to treat cigarette filters as what they are – single-use plastics – and consider banning cigarette filters to protect public health and the environment because there is no evidence that filters have any proven health benefits.

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It noted that the costs of cleaning up littered tobacco products fall on taxpayers, rather than the industry creating the problem.

WHO said each year, this costs China roughly US$ 2.6 billion and India roughly US$ 766 million. The cost for Brazil and Germany comes in at over US$ 200 million (see table below for further estimates).

Countries like France and Spain and cities like San Francisco, California in the USA have taken a stand. Following the Polluter Pays Principle, they have successfully implemented “extended producer responsibility legislation” which makes the tobacco industry responsible for clearing up the pollution it creates

WHO further urged countries and cities to follow this example, as well as give support to tobacco farmers to switch to sustainable crops, implement strong tobacco taxes (that could also include an environmental tax), and offer support services to help people quit tobacco.

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