Tobacco is grown in more than 120 countries on almost 4 million hectares of the world’s agricultural land, consuming as much arable land as all the world’s orange groves or banana plantations.

Global tobacco production has almost doubled since the 1960s, increasing 300 percent in low- and middle-resource countries while dropping more than 50 percent in high-resource countries. In 2006, world tobacco production totaled nearly 7 million metric tons with 85 percent of the leaf grown in low- and middle-resource countries.

Tobacco agriculture creates extensive environmental and public health problems. Pesticide and fertilizer runoff contaminate water resources, and the curing of tobacco leaf with wood fuel leads to massive deforestation. Agricultural workers suffer from pesticide poisoning, green tobacco sickness, and lung damage from particulate tobacco, smoke, and field dust.

Although tobacco farming is very profitable for multinational corporations, small farmers often fall into a debt trap perpetuated by tobacco companies. After the cost of inputs is deducted from revenues, small farmers often find themselves deeper in debt.

WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control calls for financial and technical assistance to tobacco growers in countries heavily dependent on tobacco agriculture. Shifting to nutritious, economically viable, and environmentally sound alternatives promises a brighter future for tobacco-producing nations.

Fact: Four countries (China, Brazil, India, USA) produce two-thirds (67 percent) of the world’s tobacco (2007).

Fact: China produced 40 percent of the world’s tobacco leaf in 2007.

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.