Tobacco use kills several million people each year but is threat to our fragile ecosystem too: WHO

World No Tobacco Day, being celebrated every year on May 31, is meant 'to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.' states WHO. This year, the observance is being held with the theme "Tobacco: Threat to our environment."

Highlighting the theme, WHO states that the tobacco consumption not only kills over 8 million people every year and destroys our environment, further harming human health, through the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and post-consumer waste.

Some yearly facts given by the WHO are as follows with regard to damage to environment caused by the tobacco industry.

~600,000,000 trees chopped down to make cigarettes

~84,000,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions released into the air raising global temperatures

~22,000,000,000 tonnes of water used to make cigarettes

"The harmful impact of the tobacco industry on the environment is vast and growing adding unnecessary pressure to our planet’s already scarce resources and fragile ecosystems," warns WHO.