Tobacco Industry Mac Lee

Negative Effects  Other than smoker’s own health effects,  Deforestation  Rural Poverty  Pollution  Food Security

Case Study - Tanzania  Tanzania loses over 61,000 hectares of forests every year due to tobacco growing.  75 percent of households in Tabora districts were regular tobacco growers,  cultivating an average of 1.3 hectares of tobacco per farmer each season  requiring 23 cubic meters of firewood to cure it.

Case Study - Zimbabwe  The number of tobacco growers registered in the 2013 growing season increased by 22,000 to 64,775  More than 80% of these registered tobacco farmers come from the smallholder sectors  A smallholder farmer produces up to 1,400 kg of tobacco per hectare, needing seven tones of firewood to cure his/her crop.  Cumulatively, these tobacco farmers chop about 5.3 million trees each year to support their production in Zimbabwe.

Personal effects  0.8g of tobacco in each cigarette  1 pack a day = 112 g / week = 448 g / month = 5376 g / year  Tobacco production yield average 2200 kg per hectare  hectare of land used for 1 year of my cigarette consumption  Around 4 tonnes of carbon per hectare is stored in the forests  kg of Carbon loss

Underage Smoking  In 2008, around 80% of South Korean high school student smokers responded that they smoke less than 10 cigarettes a day.  Among the 80%, around 30% responded that they definitely smoke more than 5 a day.  In 2008, 18% of the high school male students responded that they smoke. ~ 170,000 students  Around 114 Tonnes of tobacco (used average 5 cigarettes a day) = 52 hectare ~ 208 Tons of Carbon Loss  Policy Window ?

Challenges / Further Studies  This number is not 100% accurate  ~ 1% of the total world’s agriculture  Pro-tobacco farming studies merely accounts for the actual plantation land  firewood deforestation + tobacco farming can have more significant impact on carbon loss