Tobacco and its environmental impact: an overview
This overview assembles existing evidence on the ways in which tobacco affects human well-being from an environmental perspective – i.e. the indirect social and economic damage caused by the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and waste generated by tobacco products. It uses a life cycle analysis to track tobacco use across the full process of cultivation, production and consumption. In doing so it draws attention to gaps in the scientific evidence – particularly where the only data available are those currently self-reported by the tobacco companies themselves – and indicates where objective research could hold the greatest benefits to improving understanding of the relationship between tobacco and the environment.