Exhibition: Raw Materials for Tobacco and Nicotine Products

Unfairtobaccos Lieferketten-Ausstellung © Lieferketten-Ausstellung by Unfairtobacco / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Which raw materials are used for tobacco and nicotine products?

The exhibition highlights the beginning of supply chains. It shows the raw materials needed to produce four different tobacco and nicotine products: cigarettes, disposable e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and water pipes. For each product, the exhibition sheds light on the cultivation or extraction of three raw materials. The four displays deal with some basic questions:

Which health risks do the products have?
Which resources are contained in the product and where do they come from?
What impact does the cultivation or extraction have on the environment?
What are the consequences for people in countries such as Bangladesh, Guinea or Argentina?

The fifth display highlights people who are actively addressing the issues in supply chains.

What do tobacco farmers do once they quit tobacco growing?
How do children of tobacco farmers feel about tobacco cultivation and smoking?
What do people from mining areas demand?
What do people in Germany do to promote a sustainable change?
How do young people commit to a tobacco free world?
What can exhibition visitors do to contribute to a sustainable change?

For students, each display is accompanied by a post card featuring a graphic of the product and including tips on further reading, viewing or listening about raw materials.

Our videos below can be used for introducing or deepening your lessons based on the exhibition:

The exhibition can be ordered Germany wide. Read the conditions here [German only].

The exhibition is in German only. If you are interested to translate and/or adapt it for your own local context, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@unfairtobacco.org. We’re looking forward to create an English version.

Have a look at the displays in our gallery below.

cigarettes - snippet from the resources exhibition © cigarettes by Unfairtobacco / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

E-Cigarettes - snippet from resources exhibition © E-Cigarettes by Unfairtobacco / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

heated tobacco products - snippet from resources exhibition © heated tobacco products by Unfairtobacco / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

water pipes - snippet from resources exhibition © water pipes by Unfairtobacco / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

We Act - snippet from resources exhibition © We Act by Unfairtobacco / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

This exhibition is in German only. If you want to contribute to a translation of the displays, please get in touch with us at info@unfairtobacco.org.

The exhibition can be ordered Germany wide. Read the conditions here [German only].

Exhibition: Resources for Tobacco and Nicotine Products © Rohstoffe_Ausstellung by Unfairtobacco / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Frequently Asked Questions on the exhibition

Is the exhibition also available in English?

No. We are sorry to say that we don’t have an English exhibition. If you are interested in translating and adapting the displays to your local context, please contact us at info@unfairtobacco.org.

Does tobacco also affect our climate?

Show Answer

Does tobacco also affect our climate?

Answer:

Yes, the tobacco industry is harmful to our climate and its ecological footprint is very large. Considering the various steps from field to consumption, the global cigarette industry produces a total of 83.6 million tons of CO2 equivalents annually!

Some might guess that tobacco use makes up the largest share of carbon dioxide emissions in the supply chain. However, it accounts only for a very small part of it. Most climate damage is caused by tobacco curing (53.5%) and cultivation (24.9%) and by cigarette production (18.8%). The rest of the total 83.6 million tons CO2 equivalents is caused by further processing (1.3%), consumption and disposal (1.0%) as well as the distribution (0.5%). In comparison, Austria annually emits as similar amount of greenhouse gases, specifically 79 million tons of CO2 equivalents.

Another issue is the large scale of deforestation associated with tobacco cultivation, putting the livelihoods of plants, animals and humans in danger. The loss of forests does not only affect livelihoods, but is also significant for global climate change, as the natural forest is no longer available for CO2 storage and burning firewood for tobacco curing results in more CO2 being released into the atmosphere.

Click here to find more information on the environment and tobacco.

All Questions

How does tobacco harm the forests?

Show Answer

How does tobacco harm the forests?

Answer:

Cigarette production requires a lot of wood. For cultivation and curing of tobacco alone, at least 200,000 hectares of tropical forests are cut down every year. Additionally, 2.4 million tons of paper and cardboard are needed for the production of cigarette paper and packaging.

A process that requires a large amount of wood is the curing of Virginia tobacco. It is the main ingredient of the popular American blend cigarettes and is cured using the so called flue curing method. The green leaves are hung in sheds over hot pipes. In order to constantly ensure that the air in the sheds has the right temperature, the pipes are regularly heated using log fire. Every year, this process requires around 8 million tons of fire wood world wide, most of which is taken from nearby forests.

Besides that, cigarettes themselves can cause forest loss, precisely when they are carelessly discarded in forests while smouldering. This can ignite forest fires. For example, in the summer of 2009, a forest fire of 2,000 hectares was caused by a cigarette butt in the Russian republic Buryatia.

Click here to read more: SDG Factsheet No. 6 Tobacco | Forests.

All Questions

What's wrong with littering cigarette butts?

Show Answer

What's wrong with littering cigarette butts?

Answer:

Cigarette butts are poisonous. They contain a mixture of over 7,000 different toxic substances like heavy metals and nicotine. After smoking, the cigarette butts are often discarded in the environment, where these poisons are washed away by the rain and then contaminate the soil and waterbodies.

A study from Berlin shows that the nicotine in cigarette butts has the potential to contaminate 1,000 liters of water, harming organisms like water fleas. The study also found out, that the amount of water-soluble nicotine in one cigarette butt is about 14 times more than the EU-limit of 0.5 milligrams per gram for hazardous tobacco waste.

On top of that, cigarette filters are made of plastic. Filters that end up in the oceans can be mistaken for food by animals such as fish, birds and marine mammals. Since the filters are not biodegradable, they break down to microplastic particles, which can then find their way back to us humans via the food chain.

Cigarette butts can also cause wildfires triggered by burning or smouldering cigarettes, that are carelessly littered in the forest. For instance, in 2017, a wildfire caused by a cigarette butt in France had run through 800 hectares of forest and in 2018, another wildfire, also caused by a cigarette butt consumed 600 hectares of forest in the USA.

So if you want to protect our environment, you should never carelessly throw away cigarette butts. Although it would be even better to not smoke at all.

Click here to read more about how tobacco is harmful to the environment.

All Questions

How does tobacco affect waterbodies?

Show Answer

How does tobacco affect waterbodies?

Answer:

Already tobacco cultivation harms waterbodies. Different pesticides and chemical fertilizers used in the fields are leaching into nearby watercourses and end up in the groundwater. Contaminated ground water is a danger to the drinking water of all people in tobacco growing areas.

Additionally, cigarette manufacturing produces contaminated waste water, containing nicotine, heavy metals and other poisonous substances, which could enter rivers and end up in the oceans.

A laboratory study tested the effect of contaminated water on fish. The study showed that half of the fish died at a concentration of one used cigarette butt in one litre of water. Furthermore, cigarette filters are made of plastic and are not biodegradable, but break down into microplastic. Cigarette filters that end up in the sea can be mistaken for food by animals such as birds, fish and marine mammals. The microplastic particles that are consumed by these animals eventually find their way back to us humans via the food chain.
Lastly, all water eventually ends up in the ocean. That’s why it is important to ensure cigarette butts don’t get into waterbodies and destroy the environment!

Click here to read more: SDG Factsheet No. 5 Tobacco | Water | Oceans.

All Questions

Are tobacco plants really poisonous?

Show Answer

Are tobacco plants really poisonous?

Answer:

Tobacco does not only harm its consumers, but also the farmers who grow it. The plant contains the poison nicotine adhering to the fresh green leaves which can be absorbed through the skin particularly in wet conditions (morning dew, rain, sweat). This may result in an acute nicotine poisoning known as Green Tobacco Sickness. It leads to dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and weak muscles.

This is particularly dangerous for the numerous children working in tobacco fields all over the world. Without protection and under wet conditions, workers can get into contact with an amount of 54 mg nicotine per day - the amount of nicotine contained in 50 cigarettes. Even if they don't smoke themselves, after the harvesting season, the workers' blood can contain as much nicotine as the blood of heavy smokers.

Furthermore, nicotine weakens the immune system and can boost cancer as well as metabolic diseases such as diabetes.

Very often, farmers do not have enough resources to buy protection gear. Additionally, they have to calculate the risk of nicotine poisoning against the risk of overheating. Particularly the children on the fields have an increased risk of suffering from life threatening heat strokes and dehydration.

All Questions

Contact

Education Programme

bildung@unfairtobacco.org

+49-30-694 6101

Exhibition: Raw Materials for Tobacco and Nicotine Products

Which raw materials are used for tobacco and nicotine products?