In keeping with its observance of World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) has today (May 31) revealed new information on the extent to which tobacco damages both the environment and human health.

Every year, the tobacco industry costs the world more than eight million human lives, 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land, 22 billion tons of water and 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2).

For this reason, the WHO is calling for steps to make the industry more accountable for the destruction it is causing.

In a recently released WHO report entitled ‘Tobacco: Poisoning our planet‘ it was noted that the industry’s carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming.

According to Dr Ruediger Krech, director of health promotion at WHO: “Tobacco products are the most littered item on the planet, containing over 7,000 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.”

Despite tobacco industry marketing, there is no evidence to suggest that filters have any proven health benefits.

As a result the WHO is 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.

References countries such as France and Spain who have taken a stand and have successfully implemented “extended producer responsibility legislation” which makes the tobacco industry responsible for clearing up the pollution it creates, the health agency urged other countries to follow this example.

In addition, the WHO is calling on countries to 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.