TEHRAN – The campaign “Tobacco, a threat to our health and the environment” was launched by the Ministry of Health on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day.
The tobacco industry produces 84 megawatts of annual greenhouse gases equivalent to carbon dioxide, causing widespread global climate change and upsetting the planet’s climate balance, wasting environmental resources and damaging ecosystems.
Each year, 3.5 million hectares of land are destroyed for tobacco cultivation. Around 600 million trees are felled each year by the tobacco industry. On average, each tree produces enough paper for 15 packs of cigarettes. Tobacco cultivation accounts for 5% of global deforestation.
Over the past two and a half years, the coronavirus pandemic has killed around 6 million people, while around 20 million people have died from tobacco-related illnesses. Cigarette butts are the most abundant type of plastic waste in the world. This waste produces 767,000 kilograms of toxic waste annually, which is equivalent to 28,875 humpback whales in terms of weight.
Every year, 4.5 trillion cigarette filters fill the surface of our cities, parks, beaches and rivers, polluting water and soil.
The World Health Organization established World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to bring global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable deaths and disease it causes.
The day further aims to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and its negative health effects, which currently cause more than 8 million deaths each year worldwide, of which 1.2 million result exposure of non-smokers to second-hand smoked products.
The theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day is “Tobacco: A Threat to Our Environment”. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the negative environmental impacts of tobacco – from cultivation, production, distribution and waste.
Mohsen Farhadi, technical assistant of the health and work environment center of the Ministry of Health said that the epidemic of tobacco consumption is one of the national and global problems of the current era.
“The unprecedented development of tobacco production and its huge sales around the world, especially in low-income areas, have caused physical and psychological damage to communities, with many deaths from lung cancer, mouth , stomach, esophagus, bladder, pancreas and kidneys.
Smoking also increases cardiovascular disease and mortality,” he added.
The effects of inhaled cigarette smoke are no less than the side effects of smoking, he said, adding that cigarette smoke has no permitted dose from a health point of view because neither neither air conditioners nor smoking areas provide completely clean, pollutant-free air.
Therefore, the only way to protect yourself is not to expose yourself to inhaling cigarette smoke.
According to the report of the World Health Organization, if the pattern of smoking does not change. The losses caused by smoking will be multiplied. Over the past two and a half years, the coronavirus pandemic has killed around 6 million people, while around 20 million people have died from tobacco-related illnesses. Preventing this stat from increasing requires a lot of overall effort.
Iran also celebrated National No-Tobacco Week from May 25-31.
A healthier future with the development of smoke-free towns and villages; the development of tobacco cultivation: a threat to food security and the environment; tobacco advertising, sale, consumption and smuggling: threats to public health; increase in taxes on tobacco products; the participation of non-governmental organizations in national tobacco control and control; tobacco prevention through culture and community health education with students as a priority; and Tobacco: A Threat to Our Health and the Environment are among the themes of National No Tobacco Week.
Tobacco imposes an annual loss of 33 billion dollars
Alireza Raeisi, the former deputy health minister, announced in May that estimates show that tobacco costs the country 1.4 quadrillion rials (nearly $33.3 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials). per year.
Referring to the 40% increase in hookah consumption over the past eight years in the country, he said tobacco was costing the country 1.4 quadrillion rials (nearly $33.3 billion in official rate of 42,000 rials) per year, taking into account health costs. .
The coronavirus has killed more than three million people in a year and a half, but smoking kills eight million people a year, and the tobacco mafia is still active, causing great damage to society, he said. lamented.
Aromatic tobacco is very dangerous and contains 7,000 chemicals, of which 70 are carcinogenic and 400 are toxic, he further noted.
In 2014, there were 7 tobacco production units, which increased to 23 units in 2020, showing that the number of such production units has quadrupled, he added.
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