"Environmental cost" of growing tobacco
A REPORT published to coincide with the 9th World Conference on Tobacco and Health has highlighted the environmental costs of tobacco production. Tobacco: The SmokeBlows South, published by the Panos Institute, analyses the extent of deforestation and land degradation caused by the industry.
The major cause of deforestation is the amount of wood required to cure tobacco. The industry’s own study estimated that an average of 7.8 kg of wood is required to cure 1 kg of tobacco. Tobacco industry claims that new tree planting more than compensates for this loss are dismissed by the report, citing examples in Africa and Brazil.
An earlier Panos report on tobacco growing in Uganda concluded that the area of planted forests in the country had been reduced by more than 50% since the early 1970s.
This report said that, "the most striking effect of tobacco-growing is the depletion of both natural and planted forests." It added that in the worst affected area of the country, West Nile, deforestation has caused wells and streams to dry up.
According to the new Panos report, tobacco growing depletes soil nutrients faster than many other crops, and causes soil erosion in a number of areas.
Sri Lanka is instanced as a particularly bad example of the latter. Here tobacco is grown on hilly land close to the Mahaweli river. The loss of trees has meant that top-soil has been washed into the river, causing siltation problems downstream. —Panos Institute information, 26 Sept 1994
Source : UTUSAN KONSUMER Apr 1995
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