Smokers and non-smokers are unaware that by smoking it affects not only their health but it also has great influences to the environment. Smoke and cigarette butts affect the environment, which results in air, water and land pollution. The production of cigarettes, too, influences the environment a great deal. (2008, How Smoking Affects The Environment) The media hypes this environmental issue substantially. The topic of smoking will be discussed and will come to a conclusion if it in fact it is great an environmental issue as it claims to be or if smoking is seen in such a negative light that the media over exaggerates it.

In South Africa forty-two percent of men and twenty-three percent of women are smokers, however the Western Cape and Northern Cape have the highest rates in the country. (Candice Bailey, 5 August 2005) This environmental issue isn’t only a local effect on Cape Town, it is happening internationally and smoking occurs worldwide. There are 1.2 billion smokers in the world today, which means one-third of the global population aged 15 and over are smokers, and if current trends continue, that number is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by the year 2025.  (Terry Martin, 13 March 2012)

There are environmental issues, such as air pollution. It is quite obvious that smoking causes air pollution and to some extent it also pollutes the ground. Approximately 4000 chemicals are present in cigarettes, which are breathed out and released in the atmosphere. (2008, How Smoking Affects The Environment) Young adults, even teenagers, are still picking up smoking at the alarming rate of 80 000 to 100 000 a day worldwide, which means every one in five teenagers aged 13 to 15 smoke cigarettes. (Terry Martin, 13 March 2012) This indicates that an enormous amount of air pollution is being released in the atmosphere every day and at a continuous rate, which is increasing everyday.

Climate change is caused by the increased concentration of certain gases trapped within the earth's atmosphere. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and manufactured substances such as chlorofluorocarbons and are present in burning fossil fuels, clearing land, some aspects of farming (including using fertilisers), and industrial processes. All phases of tobacco to climate change, from farming to curing the leaf (which for some kinds of tobacco requires the use of heat generated by wood, oil, coal or gas), and the manufacturing process. (The Cancer Council, 2012) According to Ash fact sheet, Tobacco farmers often burn trees when clearing land. This burning releases large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Deforestation has meant there are fewer trees available to absorb the excess carbon dioxide. Smoke from cigarettes contains carbon dioxide and methane. Smoking releases about 2.6 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide in the air worldwide every year. It also releases about 5.2 billion kilograms of methane every year. (Ash, August 2009)

Pollution caused by smoking is not limited only to the air. The land and water is being polluted too. Every day millions of cigarette butts are left on the ground. Most of these cigarette butts end up in lakes and rivers. This leads to fishes and other water animals eat these butts, mistaking them for food, which results in death. The remaining butts left on the ground will take 25 years to decompose. The various chemicals are drained into the soil, polluting the soil as well as plants. During dry seasons cigarette butts are a major fire hazard. (2008, How Smoking Affects The Environment) Up to 16 applications of pesticide are recommended during one three-month growing period. Aldrin and Dieldrin, and DDT are among the chemicals used. Methyl bromide, widely used as a fumigant in developing countries, contributes significantly to ozone depletion. As well as being hazardous to users, chemicals may run off into watercourses, contaminating local water supplies. There are also concerns about high levels of pesticide use leading to the development of resistance in mosquitoes and flies, making the control of diseases such as malaria more difficult. Tobacco is particularly potassium-hungry, absorbing up to six times as much as other crops, leaving soil in poor condition for essential food and cash crops. (Warren McLaren, 27 February 2007)

British American Tobacco state on the home page that Integrated Pest Management is a systematic way of controlling weeds, pests and disease, which combines chemical, cultural and biological preventative and remedial practices into one programme. This systematic approach allows farmers to use pesticides only when needed. LARS reports that proper selection of pesticides helps to reduce the risk of crop loss and minimises any harmful effect on the environment. (British American Tobacco home page, 7 May 2010) Therefore this issue is regocnised by BAT and studies are being done to control the environmental effect caused by cigarettes.

Cigarette butts are creating trouble in South Africa. A lot of people believe cigarette butts are biodegradable. This is not the case, as the biggest myth is that cigarette filters are biodegradable, however the reality is that cigarette butts are not. The filter is only a portion of the butt, not the entire thing. What commonly occurs is that the butt gets flicked on to the street, nature trail, or seashore. Either wind or rain carries the cigarette into the water supply, where the poisonous chemical substances from the cigarette filter leaks out into the good quality drinking water. With millions of smokers now heading outdoors to smoke with new law registrations, this results in more littering of butts as ashtrays are left inside or not convenient enough outdoors. (2 October 2011, Smokeless Ashtray Review) This has not being disregarded by the media; there have been ways tried to tender some solutions. Such as biodegradable filters and butt boxes, as well as a suggestion for responsible disposable messages on cigarette packaging. But these are what are known as 'end-of-pipe' solutions. Global cigarette production in 2004 was 5.5 trillion units, or 868 cigarettes per every man, woman and child on the planet. At least 4.5 trillion non-biodegradable filter-tipped cigarettes are deposited annually somewhere in the world. (Warren McLaren, 27 February 2007) Therefore media warning and instructions to discard your butt correctly on packaging can only go so far. The public needs to take environmental concerns into their own hands and dispose butts correctly, into bins or ashtrays.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world with an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarettes being littered each year across the globe according to The Ocean Conservancy, a group that monitors marine pollution. Their 2009 report, A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris, found that cigarette materials constituted 28% (3,216,691 items) of the total amount of debris collected in their 2008 international coastal cleanup. This was more than twice the amount of any of the other 43 debris items listed in the report. (Ash, August 2009)

A major impact on the environment is due to the production of the cigarettes. The land, which is used for the cultivation of tobacco plants, could be better used for producing food for the third world countries. As the tobacco plant is highly at risk to pests and disease, therefore to maintain their proper growth and health various chemicals and pesticides are being sprayed. (2008, How Smoking Affects The Environment) When farmers grow tobacco, there is less land available for food crops. According to Ash fact sheet, even though tobacco growing is rotational, with different crops being planted in alternate years, tobacco soil is prone to wind and water erosion, which means that soil which has been used to grow tobacco, is sometimes unsuitable for food crops.  In addition to this, tobacco plants use more nutrients than many other crops, which leads to further degradation of the soil. It has been estimated that if food crops were grown instead of tobacco it could feed 10 to 20 million people. (Ash, August 2009)

For the production and packaging of the cigarette requires a lot of trees. In an hour cigarette-manufacturing unit requires almost 4 miles of paper for rolling and packaging of the cigarettes. Just to produce 300 cigarettes one tree is being wasted. Energy and water is also being wasted for the production of the cigarettes as well as the chemical wastes from the manufacturing unit is also dumped into the soil. Hence it is clear the cigarettes are in total adding huge strain on the body and environment. Those trees could be filtering out the pollutants already in the air instead of being chopped down for the cause of adding new ones. (2008, How Smoking Affects The Environment)

Tobacco is farmed globally and locally as well. China, United States, Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia are the five countries that produce the most raw tobacco leaves and manufactured cigarettes. (Warren McLaren, 27 February 2007)  China is home to 300 million smokers who consume approximately 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year, or 3 million cigarettes a minute. Worldwide, approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased a minute, 15 billion are sold each day, and upwards of 5 trillion are produced and used on an annual basis. (Terry Martin, 13 March 2012) Malawi, Korea, Macedonia, Moldova, and Lebanon devote more than 1% of their agricultural land to tobacco leaf production. In Africa, around 5% of all deforestation is caused by tobacco. In Malawi, where the ancient dry forests of the miombo highlands are particularly under threat, tobacco accounts for 20% of deforestation. Each year nearly 600 million trees are destroyed to provide fuel to dry tobacco. Put in another way one tree is destroyed for every 300 cigarettes. Globally, tobacco curing requires 11.4 million tons of solid wood annually. Modern cigarette manufacturing machines use more than six kilometers of paper per hour. (Warren McLaren, 27 February 2007)  

Again British American Tobacco fights back against the claims of tobacco causing deforestation in South Africa. According to BAT homepage only coal is used for curing tobacco in South Africa. The average fuel consumption is two kilograms of coal for each kilogram of cured tobacco. Efficient curing management and improved barn structures in South Africa have enabled growers to improve this figure to 1.2kg of coal for each kilogram of cured leaf. A new concept of tobacco curing by means of recycling hot air is being investigated. This has the advantage of being more energy efficient. (British American Tobacco home page, 7 May 2010)

There is still the energy and water wasted in manufacturing cigarettes that needs to be considered and with soil depletion and chemical wastage added on top of that. The tobacco industry is quite unwilling to use better technology to reduce the impact they are having on the environment because it would take up too much of their billions of dollars in profit every year. (2008, How Smoking Affects The Environment)

Cigarettes and matches are a common cause of fire and this is a big environmental effect regarding smoking. Between 1995 and 2005 there were on average 4,300 house fires a year started by smokers’ materials. In 2005, smokers’ materials caused the deaths of 110 people in homes, accounting for one third of all deaths in domestic fires in the UK. In the United States fires caused by smoking materials are the number one cause of fire-related deaths, killing 780 people and injuring 1,600 others in 2006. Eighty-nine percent of the deaths and 82 percent of the injuries were in home fires. (Ash, August 2009)

Malawi is a contributor to two US-based leaf buyers, the Universal Corporation and Alliance One International, which resell it to international tobacco firms, whom buy more than 90% of Malawi’s tobacco. Their main clients are two of the world's biggest cigarette manufacturers, Philip Morris (Marlboro) and British American Tobacco (Lucky Strike). Consequently, Malawi's tobacco is found in the blend of almost every cigarette smoked in the west. (Kristin Palitza, 14 September 2011) The tobacco industry argues that tobacco farming brings economic benefits to developing countries. However, the World Health Organisation disputes this, saying that the “overwhelming majority of the profits go to the large companies, while many tobacco farmers find themselves poor and in debt.”  Cigarette and cigar manufacturing results in large quantities of waste in the form of tobacco slurries, solvents, oils, paper, wood, plastics, packaging materials and airborne pollution. (Ash, August 2009) 


Even though the growth of tobacco is an economical benefit to Malawi (Malawi's economy is heavily dependent on tobacco, which makes up 70% of its export earnings) at the height of the tobacco harvest season, Malawi's fields are filled with young children picking the tobacco leaves. Many of Malawi's estimated 80,000 child tobacco workers suffer from a disease called green tobacco sickness, or nicotine poisoning. Symptoms include severe headaches, abdominal cramps, muscle weakness, breathing difficulties, diarrhea and vomiting, high blood pressure and fluctuations in heart rate, according to the World Health Organisation. Since the handling of the leaves is done generally without protective clothing, workers absorb up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine daily through their skin, which is equivalent to 50 cigarettes. (Kristin Palitza, 14 September 2011)

Malawi has the highest number of child labourers in Africa. Besides the health issues aside discussed above, children are also financially exploited. They work a 12-hour day without earning a salary. They are working to help their parents, who work on one of Kasungu's 22,000 registered tobacco farms and estates. (Kristin Palitza, 14 September 2011) British American Tobacco says on its website that it does "not employ children in any of our operations worldwide", but admits that using intermediaries to purchase tobacco makes it difficult to trace the country from which they buy the leaf and ensure all farm owners follow the rules. (British American Tobacco home page, 7 May 2010)

British American Tobacco shared their view on their website and told their story on the use of exploitative child labour in tobacco growing in Malawi that has been the subject of in a television documentaries. Channel 4’s ‘Unreported World: Child Labour In Malawi’, broadcast on 14 May 2010 in the UK, reported that although child labour is illegal in Malawi, young children are working in tobacco growing instead of going to school. Children worked long hours for little pay, suffered sickness and some were abused by their overseers. According to BAT, the filmmaker’s decision to talk only about tobacco, though a very important crop in Malawi meant the programme lacked context. The programme showed one of many projects funded by the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation and explained the partnership we and the other tobacco companies have with them. The programme makers say: “This project aims to get child labourers out of the fields and into education. And it seems to be working”. (British American Tobacco home page, 7 May 2010)

BAT stated their view that they “firmly agree that children must never be exploited, exposed to danger or denied an education. We do not employ children in any of our operations worldwide and make it clear to all of our contracted farmers and suppliers that exploitative child labour will not be tolerated. We are a founding member and supporter of the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT) and this is helping to make a difference in Malawi. The foundation has been successfully supporting projects since 2002, spending almost US$7 million. The Foundation is a multi stakeholder partnership, is advised by the International Labour Organisation, a UN agency, and is active in a number of countries. It is committed to helping to stop exploitation that deprives children of education and risks their health.” Therefore even though BAT states clearly that they do not support child labour. However the way the tobacco industry is structured in Malawi means we are not allowed to work directly with the farmers. Malawi has more than 400,000 small tobacco farms, many intermediaries and a government auction system. In some cases we are four or five steps removed from the growers themselves – with small-scale farmers selling tobacco to their landowners, who then sell it at auction to international dealers who then sell it on to us. So the price the farmer receives is often a fraction of the price received for it at auction. This shows that BAT is not held accountable for child labour and it is not in their hands to change it, as they cannot deal with the farmers directly. (British American Tobacco home page, 7 May 2010) However BAT still buys tobacco from Malawi, therefore even though they state their disagreement of it, they are still supporting it by purchasing the goods picked from children. According to BAT’s website, they purchase up to 60% of the annual South African tobacco crop for both local and export production. Our factory in Heidelberg produces about 26 billion cigarettes annually for domestic and international markets and 1400 tones of cutrag tobacco for export. Our company employs more than 2,000 people throughout South Africa. (British American Tobacco home page, 7 May 2010)

Cigarette companies are not oblivious as the media depicts them to be about the global concerns raised. Over the decades the tobacco industry has put researched into altering the qualities of tobacco leaf through genetic manipulation (GM). GM technology has offered prediction for maximising crop disease resistance and output. Tobacco companies have also experimented with genetic engineering as a way of manipulating nicotine concentrate with the aim of providing a potentially less hazardous product. The most notorious example of tobacco industry efforts to achieve this is BAT's 'super-tobacco', a genetically engineered plant alternative, which contained a much higher of nicotine and was intended to make the company's products more addictive. However the public worries about genetically modified crops has lead to undecided attitudes towards moving towards GM tobacco. According to ITG, 'we do not wish to use genetically modified (GM) tobacco, as we believe that our consumers do not wish to purchase products that may contain GM materials. Other companies are investing substantially in GM research. British American Tobacco home page, 7 May 2010)

The tobacco industry generally acknowledges issues concerning climate change, presenting policy statements and evidence of benchmarking towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. British American Tobacco dedicates many pages on their international websites to their engagement with responsible environmental policies. In contrast, Philip Morris International makes only general comment about its aims of reducing factory emissions, and adhering to world ISO standards. (The Cancer Council, 2012)

According to The British American Tobacco website, In 1999 BAT South Africa became the largest manufacturer of cigarettes and is among the 3000-plus signatories to the Carbon Disclosure Project, responding to regular questionnaires stating their performance in reduction of greenhouse emissions and progress towards targets. Philip Morris International does not participant in this project, whom are the second largest tobacco company in the country. Their cigarette portfolio consists of Marlboro and Chesterfield. (Philip Morris International Management SA, 2002) The tobacco industry did not always embrace global environmental concerns. In the early 1990s, lobby groups closely connected with Philip Morris contributed to the public debate about climate change by disapproving the scientific evidence upon which arguments for global warming were based, along with other scientific 'controversies' such as the health impacts of second-hand smoke and radioactive waste from nuclear power reactors. (The Cancer Council, 2012)

After looking at all aspects of environmental concerns regarding smoking one can see that it is in fact a great environmental issue. However the facts do state that smoking causes deforestation by the production and packaging of cigarettes. British American Tobacco is finding ways to use coal as another source to dry the leaves, instead of cutting down more trees to burn. They are also looking at genetically modified tobacco for the future to eliminate the need to grow tobacco, therefore save land space, to create rich soil once again to grow crops to feed those in South Africa, as it is a starving country.

The media does have a great role in the environmental issue, as one can see in the Malawi child labour documentary, BAT was harshly attacked for being the problem as they are buyers of Malawi. The Media does not show the rebuttal from BAT, that they are not directly involved with the Malawian process with the farmers. On the contrary they are quite the opposite, being four or five steps away in communication.

With in some aspects of the environmental concerns with smoking, BAT has come up with an alternative to solve to problem. Therefore the media may blow the issues out of proportion with out showing the solutions to the issues. It only states factual based information to scare the public and not the facts that have been reduced from alternative means of producing tobacco. Therefore the media does not show both sides of the argument.

To sum it up, smoking remains a global environmental concern, however it is ton the verge to being solved and is not discarded by the public and companies producing it. The only solution to stop the issue as a whole would be to have everyone stop smoking, or having smoking illegal, however this is an unrealistic idea as the public demand for the concept of smoking is too great to comprehend.

Bibliography

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