World No Tobacco Day 2022 Tobacco – Threat to our environment

31 May is World No Tobacco Day. Quit tobacco for your health and the health of our planet.

Tobacco kills over 8 million people globally, and over 20,000 people in Australia every year.

This year the World Health Organization is highlighting the harmful effect of the tobacco industry on the environment:

• Tobacco destroys our environment, further harming human health, through the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and post-consumer waste.
• Tobacco growing, manufacturing and use poison our water, soil, beaches and city streets with chemicals, toxic waste, cigarette butts, including microplastics, and e-cigarette waste.
• Don’t fall for the tobacco industry’s attempts to distract from its environmental harms. The tobacco industry uses tactics like greenwashing their products through donations to sustainability initiatives and reporting on environmental “standards” they often set themselves.
• Every cigarette smoked or tobacco product used wastes precious resources that our existence depends on.
• Tobacco smoke adds to higher air pollution levels and contains three kinds of greenhouse gases. Quit tobacco for your health and the health of our planet.