Cigarettes are made from the dried leaves of the tobacco
plant.
Nearly 5 million hectares (600
million trees) of forest are destroyed each year to provide
trees to dry tobacco.
In many poorer countries where food is already in short
supply, tobacco companies encourage local farmers to
grow tobacco instead of food. Sometimes this results
in even less food being available for the community.
Tobacco plants take more nutrients from the soil than
these food crops. They also need lots of pesticides
and fertilisers to keep them free from diseases. These
chemicals can affect the health of the farmers and their
families.
Because cigarettes are wrapped in paper and sold in
packs, they use large amounts of paper and therefore
forest resources. A modern cigarette manufacturing
machine uses six kilometres of paper per hour.