Beyond Saving Patient Lives, Can Pharmacists Save The Environment?
Jonathan Nazari, PharmD
Each year on May 31st, the World Health Organization (WHO) promotes World No Tobacco Day: an annual campaign to inform the public about the dangers of tobacco use to promote public health. The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2022 was “Tobacco: Poisoning Our Planet”, calling attention to the detrimental environmental impact of tobacco production and consumption. The environmental damage from the tobacco industry is staggering: producing tobacco and cigarettes results in the annual loss of approximately 600,000,000 trees and requires 22,000,000,000 tonnes of water. Additional environmental harm comes from the consumption of tobacco products, including waste from cigarette butts, plastic and batteries from e-cigarette products, and greenhouse gasses produced from smoking.
All of this environmental damage is in addition to the approximately 8 million people who die from the smoking-related disease each year. As accessible healthcare professionals within the community, pharmacists are well-positioned to help lead smoking cessation efforts to contribute to a tobacco-free world. Pharmacists are well informed to communicate to their patients the risks of smoking as a source of cardiovascular disease, lung disease, and cancer. Pharmacists are also capable of working with patients who smoke to develop a plan to quit, especially if patients are interested in pharmacotherapy to assist them. The average person who smokes in the United States requires approximately 6 quitting attempts to achieve long-term cessation; medications — including nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) or agents such as bupropion or varenicline — can significantly help patients to adhere to their plans to quit. Pharmacists can counsel patients to use smoking cessation therapies properly and help with side effect management, both of which are key factors to optimize the success of treatment and ensure patients can quit smoking for good.
In addition to the role that pharmacists can play in improving the health of patients and promoting public health, the theme of this World No Tobacco Day also highlights how pharmacists who assist with smoking cessation can contribute to the health of our environment. In 2020, the WHO estimated that approximately 22% of the world’s population used tobacco products. For every person a pharmacist can help quit, the less demand there is for tobacco production and the less waste there is from tobacco consumption. By focusing on tobacco cessation in their communities, pharmacists can contribute to the health of people AND our planet.
REFERENCES
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day/2022
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco
https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/smokingcessation-services-in-community-pharmacies
