Economics of Tobacco: Quick profits and unseen costs

Detailed summary

A crop that pays farmers, sellers, and the treasury. What it costs the country is much more, but the damage takes time to see ...

From farmers who grow it to consumers who use it, tobacco’s harm is widely acknowledged. It damages nearly every organ, causing cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, reduced fertility, weakened immunity and premature death.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills around 8 million people worldwide every year, including about 200,000 in Bangladesh. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates it will claim 1 billion lives this century, making it one of the world’s biggest public health threats.

Its cultivation also damages land, water and air. Yet farming and consumption continue, largely because stakeholders across the supply chain see tobacco as a moneymaker.

“We understand that there is harm,” one farmer in northern Bangladesh, a major tobacco-growing region, said. “But compared with our other crops, the profit is much higher.”

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Daily Star. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.