Tobacco and Its Environmental Impact: An Overview

Overview

This overview assembles existing evidence on the ways in which tobacco affects human well-being from an environmental perspective – i.e. the indirect social and economic damage caused by the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and waste generated by tobacco products. It uses a life cycle analysis to track tobacco use across the full process of cultivation, production and consumption. In doing so it draws attention to gaps in the scientific evidence – particularly where the only data available are those currently self-reported by the tobacco companies themselves – and indicates where objective research could hold the greatest benefits to improving understanding of the relationship between tobacco and the environment. 

Its purpose is to mobilize governments, policymakers, researchers and the global community, including relevant UN agencies, to address some of the challenges identified, and to amplify advocacy efforts beyond health by showing how deep the roots of tobacco really extend.