Tobacco litter: Polluting the environment

Colourful bright packages of smokeless tobacco are prominently displayed in shops and on the street in kiosks across India. Cigarettes in attractive packaging are sold almost everywhere – including by retailers near schools. Tobacco companies take branding very seriously and have developed product logos and use attractive colours to make their products appealing. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls tobacco packaging a “mobile billboard” that promotes the consumption of these products.

Tobacco products are addictive substances that cause the death of millions of Indians each year. After these tobacco products are consumed, their packaging often turns into litter, and this discarded packaging can be seen on footpaths and streets.

Our study, conducted by the Institute of Global Tobacco Control, established that tobacco litter is ubiquitous in urban environments and that this litter may serve as a form of post-consumption marketing - advertising that continues after a product is used.

The study identified and then classified 17,261 pieces of tobacco product litter found in nine Indian cities (Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mumbai and Patna). In each city, we conducted observations along 15 different routes, each approximately 250 metres in distance, for a total of 135 observational routes. Data collectors classified each piece of tobacco litter (product/packaging) and recorded if the litter had visible branding, such as brand names and/or logos.

We found each type of tobacco product litter on each of the 135 routes, highlighting how relevant this type of litter is to environmental pollution across the country. Smokeless tobacco packaging comprised the largest proportion of our sample of tobacco litter (62%), followed by cigarette butts (26%), bidi butts (8%), cigarette packaging (3%) and bidi packaging (1%). Across the sample, 81% of the litter had branding. A brand was visible on most packaging for cigarettes (98%), bidis (97%) and smokeless tobacco (86%), and present on 82% of cigarette butts and 26% of bidi butts.

Eliminating littering is clearly an important environmental priority. The ultimate goal should be to eliminate litter entirely. As we work on broad efforts to address this type of pollution, there are things that can be done to make tobacco product litter less effective at advertising these products.

Governments can require tobacco manufacturers to remove their colourful branding by implementing plain packaging. This is not a new idea. Australia first implemented this policy in 2012 followed by many other countries including Canada, New Zealand and Singapore.

The WHO recommends that plain packaging be used as part of a comprehensive approach to reduce tobacco use. India is a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which recommends that countries consider adopting plain packaging, including requiring manufacturers use a standard font size, style, and location for the brand name and that packaging be the same colour for the brand portion of each package. Research shows that plain packaging eliminates the effect of tobacco packaging as a form of advertising and reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products. It is likely that plain and standardised packaging will have a greater impact on younger people.

Studies that have measured the impacts of plain packaging show these measures also increase the noticeability and effectiveness of health warning labels. India has served as a world leader in health warnings on cigarette packaging and can continue to lead the region by adopting policies that limit the industry’s ability to advertise their product through littered packaging.

The tobacco industry also uses the cigarette as a valuable marketing tool, printing brand logos or names on the filters. Filters, made of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic, are present in most cigarettes and some bidis. These littered filters can reside in the environment in perpetuity. We know that these filters have a significant impact on the environment because the toxins present in the filters can end up in surface waters like lakes and rivers. These do not filter all the dangerous constituents in tobacco smoke, making their presence doubly harmful.

India has made strides to reduce single use plastic products, and filters represent another opportunity to fight plastic pollution. Regulations could require the removal of filters from tobacco products. This would make the products less appealing, particularly at a time when some cigarettes include flavoured capsules in filters to appeal to young adults and adolescents.

India has been at the forefront of so many innovations in tobacco innovations in tobacco control and it's time to consider further policies that will make these products less attractive.

This article is authored by Ryan David Kennedy, associate professor, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, US and Nirmalya Mukherjee, director, Centre For Public Health Research, Manbhum Ananda Ashram Nityananda Trust, Kolkata.