Article below is from the " The Co-operative Membership magazine" and offers a few points on Smoking.
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The environmental toll of tobacco production is
devastating and includes deforestation, pollution from heavy pesticide and fertiliser use, and soil depletion. On top of all that, there's the negative impact it has on the health of tobacco workers and with nearly three-quarters of the world's tobacco grown in developing countries, it's the poor who are hit hardest.
Growth Industry
Despite high awareness of the harmful impact of smoking, the tobacco industry is in pretty rude health. According to The Tobacco Atlas (Dr Judith Mackay, Dr Michael Eriksen, Dr Omar Shafey, published by the American Cancer Society, 2006), global production has doubled since the 1960s, and tobacco is now grown in more than 120 countries. There's been a shift in where it's grown, too: production has trebled in developing nations, while in the developed world it's fallen by half over a
comparable period. In fact, experts predict that by 2010, more than 85% of the world's tobacco will be grown in developing countries.
Any economic benefits come at a price, and it's paid for by the environment. Tobacco depletes the soil of large amounts of nutrients, and its susceptibility to disease makes it a candidate for intensive pesticide use - up to 16 applications in a three-month growing cycle. These are not substances you'd want to get too close to, either:
common pesticides include aldicarb, a nerve poison classed by the World Health Organisation as 'extremely hazardous', and chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate insecticide known to contaminate air, groundwater, rivers and lakes. Unsurprisingly, these harsh chemicals take their toll on
Any economic benefits come at a price, and it's paid for by the environment. Tobacco depletes the soil of large amounts of nutrients, and its susceptibility to disease makes it a candidate for intensive pesticide use - up to 16 applications in a three-month growing cycle. These are not substances you'd want to get too close to, either:
common pesticides include aldicarb, a nerve poison classed by the World Health Organisation as 'extremely hazardous', and chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate insecticide known to contaminate air, groundwater, rivers and lakes. Unsurprisingly, these harsh chemicals take their toll on the people who handle them, too. A study of tobacco workers in Brazil, published by Christian Aid in 2002, raised deep concerns about the effect that pesticides were having on their health. It went on to conclude that: 'Some farmers appear to be suffering from exposure to the pesticides, especially to organophosphates, which are used widely in tobacco cultivation.'
Even the tobacco plant itself can be harmful. An illness called Green Tobacco Sickness occurs when nicotine is absorbed through the skin via contact with wet tobacco
leaves. It causes nausea, dizziness, cramps, plus fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rate.
One study of tobacco workers in North Carolina found that 41% got the illness at least once during the harvest season.
Kill To Cure
After the tobacco is harvested it is cured (dried) by passing heated air through the leaves. In developing countries this process involves cutting down trees to burn, which
J causes deforestation.
Worldwide, it's estimated that one in eight trees felled is for tobacco production, and for every 300 cigarettes produced, one tree is cut down for curing. This results in
an estimated loss of 200,000 hectares of forest worldwide. In one region of Malawi, nearly 80% of the trees cut down are for curing tobacco. And clearing forests can result in soil erosion, which in turn can lead to the
floodingof nearby agricultural land.
Put simply, the tobacco industry is not planting enough trees to replace those it is using to cure the leaves. But that still isn't the whole story. The bi-product of the industry is, of course, waste. In 1995, it churned out 2.3 billion kilograms of manufacturing waste and 209 million kilograms of chemical waste. And after the cigarette reaches the consumer? Well, it appears that the butt stops with us. In a 2002 study conducted by Keep Britain Tidy, cigarette-related litter was discovered in 77% of all locations across the UK; and the international Coastal Clean Up Day in 2003 found that cigarette litter accounted for nearly 30% of the rubbish on our beaches and in our rivers and streams.
Helping Your Helth - And The Worlds
That was the bad news. The good news is that you can do your bit - by giving up cigarettes. Not only will you be doing the environment a favour, but stopping smoking will have long-term, positive effects on your health.
Becoming a non-smoker will reduce your risk of suffering from several types of cancer, heart disease and breathing diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis, as well as cut your risk of experiencing fertility problems and improve your overall health and wellbeing. And that's before you take into account the knock-on effect on the people around you, who will no longer be breathing in your secondhand smoke.
If you need more motivation to quit, consider this. Just 20 minutes after having your last cigarette, your blood pressure returns to normal. After 24 hours, all carbon monoxide is eliminated from your body, and after 48 hours, there's no nicotine left in your system. Soon, your lung capacity improves, and after a few weeks your skin brightens and you look and feel much healthier.
Over time, your risk of contracting a serious illness, such as lung cancer and heart disease, drops substantially. Fifteen years after giving up cigarettes, your risk of heart attack is the same as a lifelong non-smoker. You'll also have more money to spare (around
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