Persuasive Essay On Tobacco

In the United States of America in the twenty-first century, there are on average around two-million four hundred thousand deaths per year. Ranging from homicide to cancer, but one has been prevalent for the last century and it’s the leading cause of preventable death: tobacco use. Deaths related to the use of tobacco and its side effects are around four hundred and eighty thousand per year. Tobacco use is chronically deadly and will either kill or cause mortal disease. Tobacco sales should be declared illegal for the health of America and its people. Tobacco causes nothing but addiction and scarred internal health.

Tobacco has been used in the America’s since before the “discovery” of the New World. Its roots go before the dawn of the nation

The growth of tobacco is an extremely strenuous process. Tobacco is extremely taxing on the land on which it is planted and saps the soil of its fertility and ability to be used for other useful agricultural products. Negative environmental effects are agreed upon in the Bellagio statement on tobacco and sustainable development, “Environmental degradation also results from the tobacco plant leaching nutrients from the soil, as well as pollution from pesticides and fertilizers. Indeed, large and frequent application of pesticides…” Participants in the Bellagio statement include FAO, National Cancer Institute/Health ministry, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more. Furthermore, forestation is immense due to the tobacco industry. In developing countries where wood is produced wood is the primary source used to cure tobacco and to construct curing barns. The amount of wood is astonishing. In Southern Africa tobacco production is very common, “…an estimated 140,000 hectares of woodlands disappear annually into fires necessary to cure tobacco, accounting for approximately 12% of deforestation in the region” (Bellagio statement). Additionally, tobacco manufacturing produces an immense amount of waste. The Bellagio statement further states, “The global tobacco industry produced an estimated 2.3 billion kilograms of manufacturing waste and 209 million kilograms of chemical waste. This does not include the enormous amount of litter caused by cigarette butts…” This is an incredibly large amount of waste that pollutes both the air and water resources. The negative impact of tobacco on the environment is detrimental and cannot be