UN: Every year, more than 8 million people die from tobacco use, the United Nations said on Tuesday to mark the ‘World No Tobacco Day’. 600,000,000 trees are chopped, 84,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide is released into the air, and 22,000,000,000 tonnes of water is used up, the World Health Organization has further highlighted, elaborating on the implication.
According to the WHO, the consumption of tobacco worldwide has a devastating impact for the environment too. In a fact-sheet, the world health body highlights that it can be linked to large-scale deforestation, and loss of biodiversity, including wildlife. Apart from depletion of the planet’s water, it is also responsible for “exhaustion of fossil fuel and metal resources. desertification, depleting soil fertility”, it says.
"Exuberant emission of greenhouse gases, contamination of drinking water, and emission of toxicants in the air via direct, second- and third-hand smoke," have been counted among other challenges.
With cigarette butts being non-biodegradable, the environment faces a further danger, the WHO fact-sheet says, adding that degradation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is another issue.
- THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
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