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Tobacco companies donated PPEs to legislators in the Philippines, who supported relaxing electronic smoking device regulation.
The tobacco industry gives donations through charities to influence policy making, avoid higher taxes, and hide the environmental harms they cause.
Governments must protect the environment and the health of persons in relation to the environment in respect of tobacco cultivation and manufacture (WHO FCTC Article 18).
Governments should make tobacco companies accountable for the damage that they cause to the environment. This can be an additional tax built into the retail price of tobacco products, or a surcharge to cover the environmental costs of tobacco production, consumption, and the clean-up costs of tobacco waste products.
Aerosols from tobacco products and electronic smoking devices contain carcinogens, toxicants, and environmental pollutants and contribute to poor air quality.
Electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products pollute the environment with plastic, metal, batteries, and other hazardous and non-biodegradable materials. These devices require special disposal procedures, as required for medical waste products and electronic waste.
In addition to discarded toxic cigarette butts, the tobacco industry contributes 2 million tons of solid waste annually from discarded cartons and packaging alone.
Cigarette butts are made of single-use plastic (cellulose acetate) and contain thousands of toxic chemicals that poison the environment and human health.
It is estimated that around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year globally, generating up to 680 million kilograms of toxic rubbish each year, making cigarette butts the most littered item in the world.
The tobacco industry does not compensate farmers who suffer from diseases that come with growing tobacco.
These include nicotine poisoning (Green Tobacco Sickness), skin and eye irritation, nerve damage, respiratory disorders, musculoskeletal injuries, and psychiatric disorders.
Green tobacco sickness (GTS) is nicotine poisoning caused by dermal absorption of nicotine from the surface of wet tobacco plants.
Symptoms of GTS include headache, nausea, vomiting, chills, and abdominal cramps.
Trees are cut down for the production and curing of tobacco. Every year, the tobacco industry produces more than 6 trillion cigarettes, destroying a total of 20 billion trees in the process.
Tobacco pesticides and fertilizers in the soil and waterways wind up in the food of animals and people. Contaminated soil and waterways harm humans and destroy our ecosystem.
Tobacco plants require large quantities of chemicals (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and fumigants) and growth regulators (growth inhibitors and ripening agents) to control pest or disease outbreaks.
Farmers use organic pesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and 11 other persistent organic pollutants that are banned in high-income countries.
Health effects from chronic exposure to certain pesticides include birth defects, benign and malignant tumors, genetic changes, blood disorders, neurological disorders and endocrine disruption.