SDSU Graduate School of Public Health researchers Penelope Quintana and Eunha Hoh, along with Georg Matt from SDSU Department of Psychology, are among contributors to the newly released World Health Organization (WHO) publication: Tobacco and its environmental impact: an overview (pdf, available 5/31/2017).
This report describes the far-reaching environmental impacts throughout the extended lifecycle of tobacco, from deforestation and pesticide use during growing of tobacco to the lingering waste from thirdhand smoke and cigarette butt litter that pollutes landfills, wastewater and even lakes and oceans. This study adds to the growing call to examine and account for the environmental costs of tobacco in addition to the better known health burden of tobacco. Drs. Hoh, Quintana and Matt are experts in measuring thirdhand smoke, and Dr. Hoh was among the first to characterize the chemical pollution and toxicity associated with cigarette butt litter, in conjunction with Drs. Novotny and Gersberg at the GSPH.