The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has faced, killing more than 8 million people a year, including around 1.2 million deaths from exposure to second-hand smoke, says the World Health Organization. Every year, May 31 is marked as ‘World No Tobacco Day’, and this year’s theme is ‘Poisoning our planet’.
Tobacco destroys the environment and harms human health through its cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and post-consumer waste. Through its lifecycle, tobacco pollutes the planet and damages the health of people, the WHO says, urging policymakers to hold the tobacco industry accountable.