30 May 2017 – Stamping out tobacco use can save millions of lives and combat poverty, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today and spotlighted for the first time the ways in which tobacco affects human well-being from an environmental perspective – caused by production, distribution and waste.

“Tobacco threatens us all,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said, explaining: “Tobacco exacerbates poverty, reduces economic productivity, contributes to poor household food choices and pollutes indoor air.”

The UN health chief’s assessment comes on the eve of World No Tobacco Day, marked annually on 31 May, and which targets the threats tobacco poses to global development worldwide. WHO is calling on governments to implement strong tobacco control measures – such as banning tobacco marketing and advertising, promoting plain product packaging, raising excise taxes and making indoor public places and workplaces smoke-free.

“Many governments are taking action against tobacco, from banning advertising and marketing, to introducing plain packaging for tobacco products, and smoke-free work and public places,” noted Dr. Oleg Chestnov, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Mental Health.

Scarring the environment and those in it

For the first time, a WHO report links the impact of tobacco to nature and the environment, pointing out that tobacco waste contains over 7,000 toxic chemicals that poison the environment, including human carcinogens with smoke emissions contributing thousands of tons of human carcinogens, toxicants and greenhouse gases.

Moreover, the report underscores, tobacco waste is the largest type of litter by count globally. Up to 10 billion of the 15 billion cigarettes sold daily are disposed of in the ecosystem and cigarette butts account for 30 to 40 per cent of items collected in coastal and urban clean-ups.

“But by taking robust tobacco control measures, governments can safeguard their countries’ futures by protecting tobacco users and non-users from these deadly products, generating revenues to fund health and other social services, and saving their environments from the ravages tobacco causes,” Dr. Chan stressed.

Health, wealth and the economy

Tobacco use kills more than seven million people annually and costs over $1.4 trillion in healthcare expenditure and lost productivity, indicated WHO.

All countries have committed to eradicate poverty through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, key elements of which include implementing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). By 2030, the Convention and the Global Goals aim to cut premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by one-third, including those tobacco-related, namely heart and lung diseases, cancer and diabetes.

“Tobacco is a major barrier to development globally,” says Dr. Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO’s Department for the Prevention on NCDs.

The report highlights that some 860 million adult smokers live in low- and middle-income countries. Many studies have shown that in the poorest households, tobacco spending often represents more than 10 per cent of total household expenditure – leaving less money for food, education and healthcare.

Tobacco farming inhibits education, as 10–14 per cent of children from tobacco-growing families miss class to work in tobacco fields.

Additionally, the report points out, tobacco contributes to 16 per cent of all NCDs deaths. Women constitute 60–70 per cent of tobacco farm workers, putting them in close contact with often hazardous chemicals.

According to Dr. Bettcher: “Tobacco-related death and illness are drivers of poverty, leaving households without breadwinners, diverting limited household resources to purchase tobacco products rather than food and school materials, and forcing many people to pay for medical expenses.”

Turning to taxes, Dr. Chestnov noted that one of the least used, but most effective, tobacco control measures to help countries address development needs is through increasing tobacco tax and prices.

Governments collect nearly $270 billion in tobacco tariffs annually, but, the report identified, this could increase by over 50 per cent, generating $141 billion more by globally raising cigarettes taxes by 80 cents per pack, or one international dollar. Strengthening domestic resource mobilization, this would create funds needed to meet the 2030 Agenda development priorities.

30 May 2017 – Against the backdrop of more than 1,700 people having perished this year while undertaking perilous crossings across central Mediterranean Sea to reach mainland Europe, the United Nations refugee agency has appealed for “credible alternatives” to ensure accessible and safe ways for people in need of international protection to reach the continent.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since the beginning of the year, more than 60,000 people have used the route, with close to 9,500 migrants and refugees having been rescued over the past week and disembarked in various Italian ports.

“[However] the total number of dead and missing since the beginning of 2017 has now reached over 1,720,” Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for the agency, told the press at a regular media briefing at the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG) today.

“A total of 50 bodies were disembarked over the past few days in Crotone, Palermo and Catania following an undetermined number of incidents, in which dozens of others are feared dead or missing at sea.”

Last week alone, at least 116 people died or went missing in shipwrecks in the region.

In one such tragedy, early morning on 24 May, 33 people – including 13 women and seven children – lost their lives and dozens more feared missing when a wooden vessel carrying somewhere between 700-900 passengers sunk. 593 persons (from Sudan, Eritrea, the Comoro Islands, Egypt and Morocco) – many are deeply traumatized by the ordeal – were rescued.

Furthermore, on 23 May, some 82 people died or went missing when a dinghy carrying 126 people, mostly from Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan and Cameroon capsized. The others were rescued by an Egyptian fishing boat that came to their aid.

Also, on 27 May, the Tunisian Coastguard rescued a boat carrying 126 people, including 48 women, a five-year old boy and three babies, and took them to the port of Zarzis. A Nigerian woman, however, lost her life.

“UNHCR praises the Italian Coastguard for their constant efforts in coordinating rescue operations as well as the Tunisian Coastguard and the crew of all the ships involved for saving so many lives,” said Mr. Baloch, reiterating the UN agency’s call for alternatives to such dangerous crossings, including accessible and safe ways to reach Europe such as family reunification, resettlement and private sponsorship.

Attacks on refugees and migrants further complicate situation

Further compounding the challenges for refugees and migrants, there are reports of attacks on refugees and migrants at during crossings as well as in places where they embark.

“Survivors disembarked in Salerno last Saturday told our staff that their boat was approached by criminals who stole their belongings and took their engine off, shooting in the air on several occasions,” noted the UNHCR spokesperson, and “luckily, nobody was wounded in the incident.”

However, several refugees and migrants landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa over the week-end had gunshot wounds and reported having witnessed friends being fired at or killed.

“One man told our staff that he was shot in the leg by members of Libyan militias who also stole his belongings. Another man was shot in the arm and tortured by a trafficker to extract money from him,” he added.