Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Relevance: GS-3: Environmental pollution and degradation

Key Phrases: Sustainable Landscapes, High-quality Forest Carbon Credits, Socially Responsible Bottom-Lines, Environmental, Social, and Governance Managers, Safer Nicotine Delivery Systems, Sin Stock

Why in News?

• The second Global Adult Tobacco Survey estimated that 28.6% of all adults in India used tobacco in 2016-2017, second only to China.
• The survey said 42.4% of men and 14.2% of women used tobacco — both the smokeless form, i.e. chewing tobacco, and smoked form, i.e. cigarettes and ‘bidis’.

Key Highlights:

• In 1987, the World Health Organization (WHO) marked ‘World No Tobacco Day’ to bring attention to the ill effects of tobacco.
• ‘Poisoning our planet’ is the theme for May 31 this year, in an effort to highlight the ill effects of tobacco on the environment.
• According to Central Tobacco Research Institute , about 6 million farmers and 20 million farm labourers work in tobacco farming across 15 States.
• Although farming of tobacco only contributes to 1% of GDP as per one study, the direct health expenditure on treating tobacco-related diseases alone accounts for 5.3% of total health spending in India in a year (WHO).

Harmful Effects of Tobacco on health and environment:

1. In 2021, smoking killed about 8 million people.
2. It is bane for human health. For instance if a woman smokes during pregnancy, there are high chances of a wide range of problems, including miscarriage and premature labour. Further, such babies, whose mothers smoke during pregnancy, are exposed to the risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI), or having weaker lungs or having an unhealthy low birth weight.
3. According to the WHO, 600 million trees are chopped down annually to make cigarettes, 84 million tonnes of CO2 emissions are released into the atmosphere, and 22 billion litres of water are used to make cigarettes.
4. In addition to the environmental costs of production, cigarette butts, packaging, plastic pouches of smokeless tobacco, and electronics and batteries associated with e-cigarettes pollute our environment.
5. India, the world’s second largest producer of tobacco, produces about 800 million kg annually.

Efforts to tackle the Tobacco Epidemic:

1. Awareness Creation:
   • Most efforts to counter the tobacco epidemic have been directed at creating awareness about the ill effects of tobacco. These have borne fruit.
   • Over 90% of adults in India, across strata, identify tobacco as being harmful.
   • Additional gains in overcoming the ill effects of tobacco are therefore unlikely to come from more awareness campaigns alone.
   • While several campaigns have also dealt with finding alternative livelihoods for tobacco farmers, an issue that sometimes goes unnoticed is deforestation.
   • Despite this, the farming of tobacco cannot be stopped without serious economic consequences and/or social disruption.
2. Market-Based Solutions:
   • The forestry community has devised solutions and instruments to incentivise the reduction of deforestation through the use of carbon credits.
   • With the surge in new commitments to zero carbon from the international commodity sector, companies are putting pressure on their supply chains to transition to sustainable practices and reduce deforestation.
   • Companies like Unilever, Amazon, Nestlé, Alibaba, and Mahindra Group are pledging to cut emissions and are poised to invest an estimated $50 billion in nature-based solutions such as carbon sinks.
   • This is driving new interest in sourcing from sustainable landscapes and buying high-quality forest carbon credits.
   • The revenue from this is many times higher than the earnings from selling tobacco leaves.
3. Smoke-Free Products:
   • Cigarette companies themselves appear to be changing.
   • In 2016, one of the largest cigarette companies pledged to begin transitioning its customers away from tobacco to smoke-free products.
   • By 2019, it reported that it was spending 98% of its research and development budget to back up this goal.
   • Though first met with skepticism, this strategy of transitioning to ‘socially responsible bottom-lines is picking up speed.
   • The rise of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) managers has helped.
   • By looking at exposure to child labour, wasted energy and water, and diversity in management ranks, ESG managers say they have a clearer sense of a company’s long-term survival options.
4. Enhanced Recognition of Sin Stocks:
   • Some companies have shown much greater levels of disclosure than their competitors.
   • These statistics don’t necessarily show how good the companies themselves are, but rather how much less harmful they are than they used to be.
   • In a way, these front runners are helping sin stocks get recognition for doing less harm than before by quantifying the pace of change.
5. Transition to Safer Nicotine Delivery Systems:
   • Cigarette companies are potentially lowering the risk of their customers dying from cancer by transitioning to safer nicotine delivery systems and moving away from tobacco.

Conclusion:

• While there are problems in the business of tobacco and cigarettes, there are options, solutions, and global movements being undertaken by the largest corporate enterprises.
• Educating potential consumers to not consume tobacco, supporting consumers in their journey to quit, and incentivising the industry to help consumers and the planet will protect not just our lungs, but also the air we breathe.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Highlight the ill effects of tobacco consumption on the health and environment as well as the measures taken to tackle the tobacco epidemic. (250 words).