Tobacco Products: A Global Threat from Pre-production to Postconsumption

Background: Tobacco addiction is the leading preventable cause of mortality worldwide, killingmore than ۸ million people each year. When the harms of tobacco products such as cigarettes,pipes, and hookahs are mentioned, the harmful effects of its use on human health are mainlyconsidered; from a variety of cancers to stroke and heart diseases. But the neglected part of theissue is the harmful effects of tobacco on the environment. These effects endanger not only thehuman health, but also the life of all creatures on the planet and eventually the next generations ofhumans.Methods: A Review of literature was preformed regarding the environmental harms of tobaccoproducts. Data collection is done through searching in different databases such as PubMed andGoogle Scholar.Results: The selected studies revealed that tobacco leaves footprints in every single portion of theenvironment; from the agricultural practices carried out by farmers such as deforestation forcultivating tobacco as well as woods burning for its leaves' curing or drying, to the tobaccoproduct waste (TPW) which find its way easily to contaminate water resources and make marineecosystems more susceptible.Conclusion: The life cycle of tobacco begins before the cultivation of tobacco and continues untilafter its residues are released into the environment. Unfortunately, in Iran there is little research onthe effects of tobacco products on the environment. Also, there are few laws and fines preventingpeople from disposing their cigarette leftovers in the nature. This study has been done with the aimof raising concerns regarding the harmful effects of tobacco products on the environment. Wehope that the government will pay more attention to this issue and take more effective measures tocontrol environmental pollution caused tobacco products, and also that ecologists andenvironmental activists will address this issue more.

کلیدواژه ها:

Tobacco ، Environment ، Ecological Footprint ، Cigarette Butt Litter ، Water Quality