TOBACCO KILLS AND SO?
Co, Gianne Krischelle U. ; Dayo, Henshel Sheray S. ;
Salud, Al Vincent Paul P. ; Santos, Rochelle Kirstin C.
Section S15
gianne_co@yahoo.com ; henshel8@yahoo.com ;
vanzmarco@yahoo.com ; rochkirstin@yahoo.com
De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
ABSTRACT
This research paper intends to present the negative effects
of smoking tobacco and its other cousins, such as cigarettes
and pipes. The issues tackled in this paper include concerns
in the health sector, how poverty is exacerbated, how world
hunger is affected, how economic productivity has
diminished, and how it damages the environment. In
addition, the group aims to get a better view of the reasons
why many are still using them despite the common
knowledge that it can kill and can damage the
environment. At the end of this paper, the group shall stand
on a point that would conclude this study.
1. INTRODUCTION
As the public health community tries to reduce the
consequences smoking has on society, it has tried a number
of different approaches including education, public
relations, promoting smoking cessation programs, passing
laws restricting tobacco products, and suing the tobacco
companies.
No doubt about it. Just like there are more babies
than there are willing people to adopt them, smoking has
more negative effects than there are positive ones. Smoking
is one of the most difficult addictions to break. All around
the world, there is an estimated 1.3 billion people who
smoke, and most of these people start smoking before the
age of 18, while almost a quarter of these individuals begin
using tobacco before the age of 10.
Scientists estimate that cigarettes are more
addictive than cocaine, heroin, or alcohol. According to the
World Health Organization, smoking kills more people
than any disease in the world. Statistics say that it is
currently responsible for the death of one in 10 adults. In
2005, tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths (one every 6
seconds), and if this smoking pattern continue, it will cause
some 8 million deaths each year by [1].
With all these information readily available, why
do people continue to smoke? And why is smoking still
considered the one best thing there is—by the poor and the
rich alike who just can’t overcome their strong addiction?
2. INCREASING TARGET MARKET, INCREASING
VICTIMS
Just like any business in any industry, tobacco companies
are now also compelled to target the young and women to
increase market population. With the tobacco industry,
ironically perhaps, as their products kill their customers (or
as customers try to quit), they need to find newer
consumers. Younger people will take a longer time to die or
quit, thus increasingly the likelihood of continued sales.
Another target market being pursued by tobacco
companies are the minority groups such as the Hispanics.
According to the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and
Human Services Organizations, the tobacco industry
specifically targets Hispanic consumers because of the long-
recognized "economic value of targeting advertising to low-
income Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks" and because
"Hispanics tend to be much more 'brand-loyal' than their
non-Hispanic white counterparts" [9].
A survey by the WHO found that nearly 17 percent
of students in India aged 15 and under use some form of
tobacco, most of them cigarettes. While public bans on
smoking had some positive effects, this rise has been a
concern, and the study urged that more be done to tackle
advertising.
In New York, Tobacco Free Tompkins (T-Free), a
Community Partner of the New York State Tobacco Control
Program, conducted a survey on tobacco usage and
determined that 14 percent with less than a high school
education use tobacco, 26 percent of high school grads with
no college, 28 percent of those with some, but less that 4
years of college, and 11 percent with 4 or more years of
college [6].

Figure 1. Tobacco use by education, Tompkins County
2004—Community Tobacco Survey, Tobacco Control
Program (TC), June 2004
Another survey conducted last June 2004 by T-
Free was to find out how many adults in Tompkins County
use tobacco and smoke cigarettes. It turned out that 19.9
percent of Tompkins County adults use tobacco
Figure 2. Overall Tobacco Use, Tompkins County Adults
2004—Community Tobacco Survey, Tobacco Control
Program (TC), June 2004
while 18.2 percent of Tompkins County adults smoke
cigarettes at least some days [6].
Figure 3. Cigarette Use, Tompkins County Adults 2004—
Community Tobacco Survey, Tobacco Control Program
(TC), June 2004
Given these, it shows that the target of tobacco companies
is now more focused on the youth of today.
3. TOBACCO EXARCERBATES POVERTY
Tobacco and poverty are undeniably connected to each
other. In most countries, tobacco consumption tends to be
higher in families belonging to the lower-class.
It is worth citing the WHO again for a summary of
how tobacco exacerbates poverty: “Tobacco and poverty are
inextricably linked.” Many studies have shown that in the
poorest households in some low-income countries as much
as 10 percent of total household expenditure is on tobacco
and therefore less money to spend on basic items such as
food, education and health care.
In addition to its direct health effects, tobacco
leads to malnutrition, increased health care costs and
premature death. It also contributes to a higher illiteracy
rate, since money that could have been used for education is
spent on tobacco instead. Tobacco’s role in exacerbating
poverty has been largely ignored by researchers in both
fields [5].
All these problems deprive families of much-
needed income and savings and even compounds to their
problems through the additional costs incurred for health
care.
John Madeley noted in his book, Big Business
Poor People that heavy advertising of tobacco by
Transnational Corporations (TNCs) can “convince the poor
to smoke more, and to use money they might have spent on
food or health care, to buy cigarettes instead [2].”
4. TOBACCO CONTRIBUTES TO WORLD HUNGER
Dr Judith MacKay, Director of the Asian Consultancy on
Tobacco Control in Hong Kong, claims that tobacco’s
“minor” use of land denies 10 to 20 million people of food.
“Where food has to be imported because rich farmland is
being diverted to tobacco production, the government will
have to bear the cost of food imports,” she points out. This
case in point, smoking also contributes to world hunger as
the tobacco industry diverts huge amounts of land from
producing food to producing tobacco.
John Madeley added, the bottom line for
governments of developing countries is that the net
economic costs of tobacco are profoundly negative—the
cost of treatment, disability and death exceeds the economic
benefits to producers by at least US$200 billion annually
“with one third of this loss being incurred by developing
countries [2].”
Madeley also described in detail other impacts on
land from tobacco use:
 The land that has been destroyed or degraded to
grow tobacco has affects on nearby farms. As forests,
 for example, are cleared to make way for tobacco
plantations, then the soil protection it provides is lost
and is more likely to be washed away in heavy rains.
This can lead to soil degradation and failing yields.
 A lot of wood is also needed to cure tobacco leaves.
 Tobacco uses up more water, and has more pesticides
applied to it, further affecting water supplies. These
water supplies are further depleted by the tobacco
industry recommending the planting of quick
growing, but water-thirsty eucalyptus trees.
 Child labor is often needed in tobacco farms.
5. TOBACCO SMOKING DAMAGES THE
ENVIRONMENT
There are also other less direct impacts to the environment.
For example, the resources required to make cigarette
lighters and related products, to package and sell them, the
resources required to box and package tobacco products,
and the ones required to employ people working in the
industry, to advertise and market the products. Also, many
lighters are made from plastics and require a small amount
of fuel.
In the vast quantities they are produced these small
amounts of oil and related products that go into these can
add up. As people are getting jittery about high oil prices,
clean energy and so on, these kinds of things add to those
concerns, even if this is not seen as a priority concern.
Given that tobacco use has no benefit for society, these
costs further highlight wasted resources. While tobacco
companies are somewhat held to account for the additional
costs to people’s health, they are rarely held accountable for
promoting products which have these additional
consequences.
6. TOBACCO REDUCES ECONOMIC
PRODUCTIVITY
The economic costs of tobacco use are equally devastating.
In addition to the high public health costs of treating
tobacco-caused diseases, tobacco kills people at the height
of their productivity, depriving families of breadwinners
and nations of a healthy workforce. Tobacco users are also
less productive while they are alive due to increased
sickness [5].
To alleviate the dangerous effects tobacco has been
bringing to its consumers, The WHO has defined a policy
approach summarized by the acronym [4], MPOWER, to:
 Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
 Protect people from tobacco smoke
 Offer help to quit tobacco use
 Warn about the dangers of tobacco
 Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion
and sponsorship, and
 Raise taxes on tobacco
In a 2008 report analyzing global tobacco use and
control, the WHO found that:
 Only 5 percent of the global population is
protected by comprehensive national smoke-free
legislation and 40 percent of countries still allow
smoking in hospitals and schools;
 Only 5 percent of the world’s population lives in
countries with comprehensive national bans on
tobacco advertising and promotion;
 Just 15 countries, representing 6 percent of the
global population, mandate pictorial warnings on
tobacco packaging;
 Services to treat tobacco dependence are fully
available in only nine countries, covering 5
percent of the world’s people;
 Tobacco tax revenues are more than 4000 times
greater than spending on tobacco control in
middle-income countries and more than 9000
times greater in lower-income countries. High-
income countries collect about 340 times more
money in tobacco taxes than they spend on tobacco
control.
7. WASTED HEALTH, RESOURCES AND LABOR
While the tobacco industry without any doubt provides jobs
for many people around the world, the total negative effects
of the industry and of smoking tobacco suggests that this is
“wasted wealth” and “wasted labor.”
Talented scientists and business people currently
employed by this industry could potentially be working in
other areas contributing to society in a more positive way,
while agricultural workers could potentially be producing
less damaging products, for example.
Wastage also occurs in the form of deaths from
fires, the environmental damage caused by forest fires
started by cigarettes, the resources needed to package,
distribute, and employ people in the tobacco industry, the
resources needed to create additional products such as
cigarette lighters, promotional materials, etc.
In a way, there is also the extra cost of anti-
tobacco campaigns. Arguably, without the excessive
promotion by the tobacco industry, much time and
resources would not have to be devoted by the World Health
Organization and other campaigners on raising these
issues; other concerns could then be given more attention.
The production of tobacco is rooted from tobacco
farming. It is an extremely labor-intensive occupation and
involves the use of expensive materials such as chemical
fertilizers and pesticides. The tobacco industry reaps the
overwhelming economic benefits brought about by tobacco
farming whereas the laborers and farmers find themselves
deep in debt. In addition, tobacco farmers are also prone to
illnesses as a result of their exposure to pesticide and
nicotine poisoning.
Children and adults working with tobacco often
suffer from green tobacco sickness (GTS), which is caused
by dermal absorption of nicotine from contact with tobacco
leaves. Common symptoms include nausea, vomiting,
weakness, headache and dizziness, and may also include
abdominal cramps and difficulty breathing, as well as
fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rates [10].
There is growing concern about the
neuropsychiatric effects among tobacco workers of exposure
to organophosphate pesticides, with preliminary studies
indicating increased rates of depression and suicides in
Brazil among tobacco farmers [11].
While people have attempted to hold tobacco
companies to account for the health burden they introduce,
they are rarely held to account for these other forms of
waste.
8. HEALTH CONCERNS
Tobacco use harms health in many ways. In fact smoking
may cause more than 20 illnesses of which can kill.
Smokers are generally in poorer health than non-smokers.
On average, smokers die younger than non-smokers.
Cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancer,
cardiovascular disease and chronic lung disease. Smoking
also has a profound impact on reproductive health.
Smoking harms almost all organs and body systems, even
those not in direct contact with tobacco or tobacco smoke.
Secondhand tobacco smoke is also a cause of illness–
including fatal illness–in non-smokers. Children exposed to
secondhand smoke have a higher risk of sudden infant
death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear
problems and more severe asthma. In adults, passive
smoking causes immediate adverse effects on the
cardiovascular system and is a cause of coronary heart
disease and lung cancer [7].
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the
United States today, and the leading cause of death among
smokers. And, on a global level, researchers report that
there were 1,690,000 premature deaths from cardiovascular
disease among smokers in the year 2000. In contrast, there
were approximately 850,000 lung cancer deaths during the
same year, and 118,000 COPD deaths from smoking in
2001, worldwide [8].
Indeed smokers have to pay attention to such risks
they are taking. Still there are a lot of people worldwide
who continues to smoke. Don’t these issues ring a bell to
them?
9. FREE CHOICE AT THE END OF THE DAY?
It is often argued by those who prefer to smoke and not see
more and more restrictions put in place that it is their free
choice to smoke. Some will add that they do not smoke in
front of children, etc and thus sound responsible.
Yet, on the one hand how free a choice is it to
decide to smoke? Advertising, peer pressure, modern
culture, stress all combine to give reasons for people to
smoke.
Furthermore, it may seem like a free choice to only
harm oneself when deciding to smoke, but second-hand
smoking also kills.
And perhaps more remote than that is people half
way around the world may be going hungry because land
that could have been growing and sustaining local people is
now diverted into environmentally damaging and wasteful
tobacco production.
As hopeless as it may already seem, as long as
people exist, change is inevitable. At the present,
developments in technology have caught up with the
tobacco industry particularly through the use of electronic
cigarettes. The electronic cigarette is basically a device that
looks like a cigarette, delivers “smoke” and nicotine, and
allows the smoker to enjoy the smoking experience with
much less harm to oneself and the environment. With
further research and testing on these technologies, the high
rate of smoking occurrences can be curbed. For the problem
to be completely eradicated is another story.
Ultimately, the one clear-cut solution is to stop
smoking permanently. It can be done through therapy,
“cold-turkey,” or any other means possible which are of
course, within reason. There should be no side-effects
whatsoever.
If one does not wish to give up smoking because it
is considered free choice, how about quitting smoking so
others may have a choice?
10. REFERENCES
[1] 10 facts about tobacco and second-hand smoke. (May
2008). World Health Organization Official Website.
Retrieved March 6, 2009 from http://www.who.int/features/
factfiles/tobacco/en/index.html
[2] Madeley, J. (Feb 2009). Big Business Poor People: The
Impact of Transnational Corporations on the World's Poor.
Michigan: Zed Books, 1999.
[3] New report on global tobacco control efforts. (Feb
2008). World Health Organization Official Website.
Retrieved March 7, 2009 from
http://www.who.int/mediacen
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[4] WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008 -
The MPOWER package. (Feb 2008). World Health
Organization Official Website. Retrieved March 7, 2009
from http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/en/index.html
[10] Arcury T.A. et al. High levels of transdermal nicotine
exposure producegreen tobacco sickness in Latino farm
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[7] Health. (2006). Tobacco Academy—Rockefeller

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