World Health Organization Calls for Replacing Tobacco Cultivation with Sustainable Food Crops to Protect Food Security

In a new study published on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization called for replacing tobacco cultivation with more sustainable food crops that contribute to protecting food security in all parts of the world.

According to the study, tobacco is grown in more than 124 countries, as this harmful plant occupies about 3.2 million hectares of fertile land that can be used to grow food.

The World Health Organization deplored turning that fertile land into a source of crop production that kills more than 8 million people each year, undermines global economies and damages the environment, while 79 countries face severe food insecurity.

Brazil, China and India produce more than 55% of global tobacco crops, followed by Indonesia, Malawi, Mozambique, Turkey, Tanzania, the United States and Zimbabwe.

According to the study, large tobacco companies sought to reduce production costs by transferring the cultivation and production of tobacco leaves to low-income countries, especially in the African continent.

From 2005 to 2020, the area cultivated with tobacco decreased worldwide by 15.8%, while it increased in Africa by 19.8%, noting that East Africa accounts for 88.5% of tobacco leaf production in the poor continent.

While North African countries play little or no role in tobacco production, at the same time they have large trade volumes in importing raw tobacco or cigarettes.

The study stressed that tobacco industry labor circles are trying to undermine anti-smoking efforts.

In this regard, she said: “What is not discussed much is the misconception that tobacco farming is a very profitable business for smallholder farmers, and good for the economy in general. The economic contribution of tobacco farming to local and national economies, employment figures and the trade balance is usually highlighted. the National”.

On the other hand, the World Health Organization said in its report that there are 1.3 million children worldwide involved in tobacco cultivation, and that most of them belong to poor families, which causes them to miss school seats to help their parents in that cultivation.

The study confirmed that the children’s tasks in that cultivation include mixing and using pesticides, harvesting tobacco leaves by hand and tying them to sticks to dry, and sorting and classifying dried tobacco, which exposes them to harmful chemicals and nicotine.

A previous study by the World Health Organization had stated that tobacco caused the death of 100 million people worldwide during the twentieth century.

This is the reason why those in charge of support policies directed at developing countries assert that tobacco could be the first cause of 80% of deaths until 2030 in middle- and low-income countries.

The organization sounded the alarm due to the escalating number of deaths due to involuntary or passive smoking.

Passive smoking is the inhalation of smoke that fills restaurants, offices or other enclosed spaces when smokers burn tobacco products such as cigarettes and hookahs. More than 4,000 chemicals circulate in the air, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful, and another 50 are known to cause cancer.

In addition, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in adults, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. It causes sudden death in infants.

Almost half of the children regularly breathe air polluted with tobacco smoke in public places, and more than 40% of them live with a smoker, whether the father or mother or both.

The World Health Organization says that in 2004, children “made up 28% of deaths from second-hand smoke.”

Since 2005, the World Health Organization has committed to combating tobacco use globally, through an agreement signed in February of that year by 178 parties.

The convention centers on tobacco control through unified mechanisms, and the global body notes that it is “one of the most widely accepted treaties in the history of the United Nations.”

In WHO’s view, the Convention has become “the most important tool for tobacco control, a data-driven treaty that affirms people’s right to the highest attainable standard of health, provides legal dimensions for international health cooperation and sets high standards for compliance”.