The effect of smoking on the health of the smoker is now widely known. However, the environmental impact of tobacco production and consumption has not received adequate attention. This article, based on WHO data, attempts to highlight the role of smoking as an environmental burden.

Passive smoking: The term refers to the involuntary or involuntary inhalation of a cloud produced by smoking in an enclosed space, usually at home, workplace, entertainment venues or vehicles. This cloud affects and affects smokers and non-smokers, is rich in nicotine and carcinogens, and is formed by:

– The smoke of a burning cigarette, which, due to incomplete combustion, contains more toxic substances than those that the smoker himself inhales.

– The exhalation of a smoker, containing the smoke he inhales, enriched with droplets, viruses and bacteria from his bronchi and oropharynx.

The mixture of secondhand smoke gases and particles has been proven to be infectious, toxic and carcinogenic and is responsible for over 800,000 premature deaths each year, of which 60,000 occur in young children.

Third hand smoke: It is the inhalation of an invisible mixture of toxic substances given off by the smoker’s clothing, hair or furniture, curtains, carpets, and even the walls of the room where someone smoked. The components of tobacco smoke chemically react with known gaseous environmental pollutants and produce additional toxic and carcinogenic substances that are not primarily present in either active or passive smoking.

Third-hand tobacco smoke is especially dangerous for young children because:

“They are in close contact with the clothes of the parents who smoked.

“By crawling and playing, they breathe in close proximity to floors that emit fuming pollutants.

“They not only inhale nicotine, but also with their hands, which they then bring to their mouths, swallow it without hindrance, with all the ensuing consequences.

Cigarette ashtrays: Every year, 6.25 trillion cigarette butts pollute the planet, and as waste, they pollute basically every urban area, roads, parks, beaches, rivers, seas, that is, our entire natural environment. Every day, about 750,000 tons of cigarette butts and filters containing plastic, tar, nicotine, formalin, arsenic, heavy metals and carcinogens are thrown into the environment, polluting habitats and groundwater and entering the food chain. These filters are often found in the digestive system of fish and are often ingested by pets, even small children on playgrounds. The service life of plastic filters is ten years.

Growing tobacco: 43 million hectares of agricultural land in 125 countries are used for monocultures of tobacco, a product that kills, when they could well produce food that helps solve the world’s food problem. Pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, pesticides and toxic production stimulants are widely used by tobacco farmers, polluting the environment uncontrollably, especially in developing countries. The leaching of vital elements from the soil due to continuous tobacco cultivation requires frequent replenishment of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Drying tobacco leaves: Of particular ecological interest is the drying of tobacco leaves, which in our country is carried out naturally in the sun, and in a humid climate – artificially by burning firewood. Annually, 11.4 million tons of wood is used as fuel for drying tobacco leaves. Including the wood needed to make cigarette papers and packs, approximately 600 million trees are burned each year to fuel the tobacco trade.

Industrial pollution: Worldwide, 500 tobacco factories annually consume 22.2 billion cubic meters of water and 62.2 PJ of energy to operate. The total amount of CO2 emitted annually during the production, transportation and combustion of tobacco products reaches 84 Mt eq., and the methane produced is estimated at 5.2 billion kilograms per year.

Epilogue

Given that the environment is an extension of our biological selves, recognizing smoking as an environmental pollutant reinforces the European target of reducing smoking to less than 5% by 2040.

* Mr. Panagiotis Behrakis – pulmonologist-resuscitator.