The journey from seed to smoke: A hidden story of harm
Uncover the environmental and social justice cost of every cigarette.
We hear a lot about the health implications of smoking, but it isn’t just a personal health issue. Tobacco production is a global industry with environmental, social and ethical consequences. The making of tobacco and cigarettes leaves a lasting impact on our planet and people.
For each section, the titles then subtitle could be available, with the extra information available when you click on them. Emotive images for each section.
Growing the problem: Tobacco Cultivation
Key impacts-
- Deforestation: over 600,000 hectares of forest are cleared annually for tobacco farms and wood fired curing.
- Monoculture Farming: Damages soil and reduces biodiversity.
- Pesticide Use: Farmers handle toxic chemicals, often without protection.
- Child Labour: Over 1 million children work in tobacco fields, exposed to nicotine and exploitation.
- Farmer Poverty: Despite back-breaking work, many farmers remain trapped in cycles of debt and dependence.
Environmental Toll
Key impacts-
- Soil Exhaustion: Tobacco depletes nutrients faster than any other crops.
- Water Waste: Thousands of litres used per kilo of tobacco produced.
- Air Pollution: Processing and cigarette smoke contribute to greenhouse gases.
- Litter and Waste: Cigarette butts are the most littered item on earth (4.5 trillion annually), and filters take 10+ years to degrade and leach toxins into the eco systems.
Social Justice in the supply chain
Key impacts-
- Human rights violations: Child and bonded labour (where workers are compelled to work due to debts) are prevalent in countries like Malawi, Indonesia and Brazil.
- Gender Inequality: Women are underpaid and often assigned the most hazardous work, spending a lot of time in the fields exposed to chemicals, pesticides and dust.
- Health Costs For Workers: ‘Green tobacco sickness’ is an illness picked form exposure to nicotine, absorbed through the skin.
- Corporate Power: Big Tobacco often lobbies against health laws and misleads consumers in low-income nations.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/25/uk-tobacco-giant-should-respect-human-rights
A Disposable Products with Permanent Impact
Key figures-
- Air Pollutants: CO2, Methane, and volatile organic compounds.
- Landfill waste: Packaging, plastic filters and foil.
“Deforestation for tobacco growing has many serious environmental consequences – including loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and degradation, water pollution and increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.” (NIH https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4669730/)
Smokers in the developed world are literally and metaphorically burning the resources of poorer countries.Dr Nicholas HopkinsonNational Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/188406/cigarettes-have-significant-impact-environment-just/
“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,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO. https://www.who.int/news/item/31-05-2022-who-raises-alarm-on-tobacco-industry-environmental-impact
Littered cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals—such as arsenic (used to kill rats) and lead, to name a few—into the environment and can contaminate water. The toxic exposure can poison fish, as well as animals who eat cigarette butts. https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/harmful-effects-tobacco/5-ways-cigarette-litter-impacts-environment
Smoking affects your immediate environment too – harming your pets. Toxins in tobacco smoke can damage your pet’s cells. This can mean they’re more at risk of certain types of cancer including lung, nose, mouth cancers and lymphoma. Smoke can cause breathing problems or make existing breathing problems worse. Second hand smoke can cause a range of other problems too and has been associated with weight gain. https://www.pdsa.org.uk/pet-help-and-advice/looking-after-your-pet/all-pets/passive-smoking-and-our-pets
Tobacco farming impacts both women and children. About 7 in 10 tobacco farm workers are women, and around 1.3 million children aged 14 and under are exploited through tobacco farming in the 12 major tobacco growing countries. https://www.emro.who.int/tfi-campaigns/2017/how-does-tobacco-impact-women-and-children.html
Child labour is critical for the tobacco industry, and they rely heavily on children, meaning many of them miss out on school because they are working in tobacco fields. https://www.emro.who.int/tfi-campaigns/2017/how-does-tobacco-impact-women-and-children.html
Smoking in the developing world has been shown to reinforce poverty as already deprived smokers spend less on healthcare, children’s education, food, and clothes. https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/tobacco-and-the-developing-world
Almost all tobacco farming now takes place in low and middle-income countries. This causes massive environmental damage such as mass deforestation and air pollution, and the industry’s poor safety practices leave tobacco farmers – many of which are children – prone to developing serious life-threatening illnesses. https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/tobacco-and-the-developing-world
In a May 2016 report, Human Rights Watch found that thousands of children in Indonesia, some as young as 8, are exposed to serious hazards while working on tobacco farms, including some that supply BAT. Many child workers mixed or sprayed toxic pesticides and many suffered nausea, vomiting, or other symptoms consistent with nicotine poisoning, a result of absorbing nicotine through their skin. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/25/uk-tobacco-giant-should-respect-human-rights
The hardest of all the crops we’ve worked in is tobacco. You get tired. It takes the energy out of you. You get sick, but then you have to go right back to the tobacco the next day.
—Dario A., 16-year-old tobacco worker in Kentucky, September 2013