Environmental effect of smoking cessation

We thank the authors for their useful review of bupropion for smoking cessation in adolescents, published in the climate change–themed October issue of Canadian Family Physician.¹ We would like to highlight that smoking cessation, in addition to being good for patient care, is a climate change intervention. Helping a patient quit smoking prevents tobacco-related illness and reduces the carbon footprint of both cigarette production and the health care burden of tobacco-related illness.

Producing just 1 cigarette takes 3.7 L of water and 3.5 g of oil, making cigarette production responsible for 0.2% of global carbon emissions.² Additionally, tobacco and cigarette production reduces the capability of agricultural land to produce food for consumption, increasing food insecurity in vulnerable populations and contributing to deforestation.^2,3

Every health care activity has an environmental impact. Every procedure, test, and treatment consumes energy and resources, and produces waste.⁴ By enabling our adolescent patients to stop smoking, we can substantially improve their health, and also reduce the carbon emissions that would have been associated with tobacco production and tobacco-related illness.