Tobacco smoking kills
Tobacco exacerbates poverty
Tobacco contributes to world hunger by diverting prime land away from food production
Tobacco production damages the environment
Tobacco reduces economic productivity
While the Tobacco industry may employ people, this can be considered an example of “wasted labor”, capital and resources.
The World Health Organization has noted that policy measures such as complete bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and its sponsorship do decrease tobacco use. However, the tobacco industry uses its enormous resources to derail or weaken laws and agreements in various countries and regions.
These issues are introduced below.
Tobacco Smoking kills
The world’s premier health organization, the World Health Organization (WHO) is quite blunt about the impacts of tobacco and smoking:
Tobacco smoking is the second major cause of death in the world.
Tobacco kills nearly 6 million people each year (1 every 6 seconds)
It is currently responsible for the death of 1 in 10 adults
It is the leading preventable causes of all deaths
It kills up to half of its users.
If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 8 million deaths each year by 2030
Tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century.
At current trends up to one billion will die in the 21st century from tobacco.
On average, a smoker killed in middle age loses about 20 years of life expectancy compared to someone who has never smoked
An estimated 1.3 billion people smoke
84% of all smokers live in developing and transitional economy countries
Most people start smoking before the age of 18; almost a quarter of these individuals begin using tobacco before the age of 10
47.5% of all men smoke compared to 10.3% of women.
Tobacco is the fourth most common risk factor for disease worldwide.
Tobacco is deadly in any form or disguise:
Cigarettes, pipes, bidies, kreteks, clove cigarettes, snus, snuff, smokeless, cigars…
Mild, light, low tar, full flavor, fruit flavored, chocolate flavored, natural, additive-free, organic cigarettes, PREPS (Potentially Reduced-Exposure Products), harm-reduced…
Second-hand smoke is also a very serious problem:
Second-hand smoke causes 600,000 premature deaths per year.
Of the over 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer.
An estimated 200,000 workers die every year due to exposure to smoke at work; The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that second-hand smoke is responsible for about 3000 lung cancer deaths annually among non-smokers in the country.
About 40% of all children are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke at home.
31% of the deaths attributable to second-hand smoke occur in children.
10% of the economic costs related to tobacco use are attributable to second-hand smoke.
In 2000, fire caused by tobacco smoking caused
10% of all fire deaths
300,000 deaths
US$27 billion in costs
Tobacco companies spend tens of billions of dollars each year on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. One third of youth experimentation with tobacco is attributed to this spending
Tobacco and poverty are inextricably linked. Many studies have shown that in the poorest households in some low-income countries as much as 10% of total household expenditure is on tobacco [and therefore] less money to spend on basic items such as food, education and health care. In addition to its direct health effects, tobacco leads to malnutrition, increased health care costs and premature death. It also contributes to a higher illiteracy rate, since money that could have been used for education is spent on tobacco instead. Tobacco’s role in exacerbating poverty has been largely ignored by researchers in both fields.
Tobacco contributes to world hunger, diverting prime land from food production
Smoking also contributes to world hunger as the tobacco industry diverts huge amounts of land from producing food to producing tobacco as John Madely also notes:
Dr Judith MacKay, Director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control in Hong Kong, claims that tobacco’s “minor” use of land denies 10 to 20 million people of food. “Where food has to be imported because rich farmland is being diverted to tobacco production, the government will have to bear the cost of food imports,” she points out.
The bottom line for governments of developing countries is that the net economic costs of tobacco are profoundly negative—the cost of treatment, disability and death exceeds the economic benefits to producers by at least US$200 billion annually “with one third of this loss being incurred by developing countries”.
Tobacco production damages the environment
Madeley also describes in detail other impacts on land from tobacco use:
The land that has been destroyed or degraded to grow tobacco has affects on nearby farms. As forests, for example, are cleared to make way for tobacco plantations, then the soil protection it provides is lost and is more likely to be washed away in heavy rains. This can lead to soil degradation and failing yields.
A lot of wood is also needed to cure tobacco leaves.
Tobacco uses up more water, and has more pesticides applied to it, further affecting water supplies. These water supplies are further depleted by the tobacco industry recommending the planting of quick growing, but water-thirsty eucalyptus trees.
Child labor is often needed in tobacco farms.
Tobacco Reduces Economic Productivity
Summarizing from the WHO again:
The economic costs of tobacco use are equally devastating. In addition to the high public health costs of treating tobacco-caused diseases, tobacco kills people at the height of their productivity, depriving families of breadwinners and nations of a healthy workforce. Tobacco users are also less productive while they are alive due to increased sickness. A 1994 report estimated that the use of tobacco resulted in an annual global net loss of US$ 200 thousand million, a third of this loss being in developing countries.
Tobacco taxes; one of the most effective measures to reduce smoking
The reason that raising taxes on tobacco has been seen as important is because it both raises revenues for governments (which helps fund tobacco control and social/health programs to address associated problems) and it helps deter people — especially the young — from taking up smoking.
As the WHO notes in its 2013 global tobacco epidemic report PDF formatted document, higher taxes are especially effective in reducing tobacco use among lower-income groups and preventing youth from starting to smoke. An increase in the retail price of cigarettes by 10% will reduce consumption in high-income countries by about 4% and in low- and middle-income countries by up to 8%; smoking prevalence is usually decreased by about half those rates.
The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine also noted that more than 200 million lives could be saved by the end of this century if tobacco taxes were tripled around the world.
Perhaps ironically (as raising taxes on tobacco is a publicly popular policy choice), the WHO also notes that it is the least-achieved of the MPOWER measures listed earlier. (p.80) In addition, while governments collect nearly US$ 145 billion in tobacco excise tax revenues each year, less than US$ 1 billion combined is spent on tobacco control – 96% of this is spent by high-income countries. (p.84)
Progress with more countries adopting anti-tobacco measures
In a 2008 report analyzing global tobacco use and control, the WHO found that
Only 5% of the global population is protected by comprehensive national smoke-free legislation and 40% of countries still allow smoking in hospitals and schools;
Only 5% of the world’s population lives in countries with comprehensive national bans on tobacco advertising and promotion;
Just 15 countries, representing 6% of the global population, mandate pictorial warnings on tobacco packaging;
Services to treat tobacco dependence are fully available in only nine countries, covering 5% of the world’s people;
Since 2008, however, the progress on tobacco control has been quite positive, as the WHO reports:
2.3 billion people — roughly a third of the world’s population — is now covered by at least one life-saving measure to limit tobacco use
The number of people covered by bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, has increased by almost 400 million people residing mainly in low- and middle-income countries
3 billion people are now covered by national anti-tobacco campaigns
But despite this progress, to achieve the globally agreed target of a 30% reduction of tobacco use by 2025, more countries have to implement comprehensive tobacco control programs.
Targeting Children, Teenagers and Women
Image: boy smoking. © WHO
For their 2008 World No Tobacco Day event, the WHO noted that “Most people start smoking before the age of 18, and almost a quarter of these individuals begin using tobacco before the age of 10.” Almost understandably, tobacco companies are compelled to target the young and women. Teenagers are future consumers often highly impressionable and in some societies with significant disposable income; for any company where brand and consumption of their products are important, attracting younger members of society increases the chances of longer term lock-in. Image: young girl smoking. © WHO With the tobacco industry, ironically perhaps, as their products kill their customers (or as customers try to quit), they need to find newer consumers. Younger people will take a longer time to die or quit, thus increasingly the likelihood of continued sales. Women generally smoke a lot less than men, everywhere. It can be deadly to unborn children, too. However, tobacco companies see women as an untapped market where there is more potential to increase consumption than with men. So, unchecked and with profit being the natural motive for the tobacco companies, children and women are understandable target consumers. 
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