Smoking is a global activity which cuts across countries and cultures. Tobacco is big business and is grown in over 146 countries. But why does an activity, which has ‘killed more than 100 million people in the 20th century’ and is projected to contribute to ‘1 billion deaths in the 21st century ’, (www.tobaccoatlas.org) prevail? The extraordinary power which the big tobacco companies wield seems to lie at the heart of it.
The growing, processing, manufacturing, transporting, advertising and selling of tobacco is big business. It involves a number of stakeholders – from farm workers to huge transnational corporations and from active to passive smokers. However, massive inequalities lie within these supply chains and the stakes are high for both the winner and the losers.
Educating young people about the dangers of smoking is no longer enough; we should also be making them aware of the impacts of this industry globally.
Young people
Young people are often a target group for campaigns explaining the health implications of smoking. In Scotland, smoking rates in under 15s are low, and smoke free education programmes are good. However, young people in other parts of the world are becoming the target for advertising campaigns and the numbers of young people who are starting to smoke around the world is on the rise. (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids)
Educating young people about the dangers of smoking is no longer enough; we should also be making them aware of the impacts of this industry globally. Where does tobacco grow, who grows it, what are their lives like? Inequality, poverty and big business are all issues which lie at the heart of what is a global health epidemic.
Scotdec’s new education resource, Going up in Smoke, is an excellent tool to support a different approach to smoke free education programmes. With a cross curricular approach, it covers areas such as children’s rights, sustainability and health and wellbeing. Experiences and Outcomes are mapped within Social Subjects, Literacy and Health and Wellbeing at level 2 and 3.
A good starting point is to use the tobacco compass, a tool for building an enquiry approach to the topic which makes use of the key elements of Learning for Sustainability. LINK
Inequality, poverty and big business are all issues which lie at the heart of what is a global health epidemic.
Tobacco and health
The production and use of cigarettes is hugely damaging in many ways; health risks of smokers have been well documented, however, those who grow tobacco are equally at risk. Often tobacco is grown in places where regulations and access to adequate protective clothing and equipment is poor.
Without protective clothing, workers absorb nicotine through their skin from the green tobacco leaves. This can causes Green Tobacco Sickness with symptoms including stomach pains, headaches, muscle weakness, breathlessness and coughing fits.
The chances are if you smoke tobacco then some of it has been grown under these conditions. As an alternative smoke free message it is a powerful one. Smoking doesn’t just damage your health but also the health of the growers.
Tobacco and worker’s rights
Tobacco growing is labour intensive and requires 33 million workers globally at the early stages of the processing of tobacco and a total of 100 million workers in all stages of the production. In many countries, labour laws do not provide sufficient protection or safe working conditions, fair wages or economic security for the workers. The greatest percentage of the profit from tobacco production goes to large tobacco companies rather than local tobacco farmers.
Tobacco and child labour
Tobacco production is an industry where child labour is rife. It is difficult to know the exact number of children working in the tobacco industry but frequently children are forced by economic necessity to work with their families in the tobacco fields, risking their health, safety and future. Poverty and lack of education keep children at work on tobacco plantations.
More than £1.7bn has been directly invested in tobacco company stocks by healthcare providers, fire authorities and schools via UK council pension funds, (the report claims.)
Tobacco and the environment
In many tobacco-growing countries, there is evidence of environmental damage from tobacco agriculture. Forests are cleared to provide farmland for growing tobacco and firewood to cure tobacco plants. In Southern Africa alone, an estimated 140,000 hectares of woodlands disappear annually into the fires necessary to cure tobacco, accounting for approximately 12% of deforestation in the region.
Furthermore, tobacco production generates a lot of waste – some of it, toxic. This toxic cocktail of agricultural pesticides and herbicides used on tobacco farms runs off into streams, rivers and lakes. The intensive nature of tobacco farming quickly leads to soil becoming depleted of its naturally occurring minerals.
Exporting smoking
Since the World Health Organisation introduced its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, legislative restrictions and increased awareness of the consequences of smoking has led to a decline in smoking in Europe, North and South America and Australia. However, it is rising in the South as multinational tobacco companies seek new markets where they employ political, legal and economic influence as well as targeting advertising and price reduction in poorer nations. (Guardian)
Tobacco and us
As educators we have a responsibility to make our young people aware of these bigger issues with the tobacco industry. A recent report from the Guardian illustrates just how connected to this industry many of us are. More than £1.7bn has been directly invested in tobacco company stocks by healthcare providers, fire authorities and schools via UK council pension funds, the report claims. The report goes on to list a number of Scottish Local authorities where there is direct investment in tobacco stocks.
Tobacco and the Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 Good health and wellbeing (target 3.A) focusses on the World Health Organisation’s convention on tobacco control and its adoption in all countries. It aims to tackle the tobacco epidemic noting the worldwide health, social, economic and environmental impacts of tobacco and the need to cooperative action globally to tackle these problems.
Global Citizenship
A global approach to any school programme on tobacco and smoking can add value and depth. Children’s rights, environmental sustainability and global connections can enhance learning and support a cross-curricular approach.
More importantly, our young people, deserve to know the truth about big tobacco companies and the power it continues to have globally.
