Deforestation and Smoking

In March 1982, the tobacco-deforestation link was being cited. See "Tobacco Depletes Food-Crop Land," 28 Smoke Signals (#3) 7 (March 1982). It reported:

"Farmers in Kenya's Kunati Valley have stopped growing maize--the country's most important staple food--and are now growing tobacco for a multinational company, according to a report by the All Africa Press Service. . . .

"The slopes on the sides of the Kunati Valley, near Mount Kenya, are now 'completely bare.' Their former covering of trees has been cut down to be used as fuel for curing tobacco.

"With most of the fertile ground given over to tobacco, some farmers have tried to grow maize on the formerly forested hillsides. But heavy rains wash away soil, plants, and all. The topsoil has eroded in some places, and rocks and boulders are already washing down toward the fertile fields below, the report says.

"Only 17 percent of Kenya's land can support crops, and an even smaller area has forest cover, so the country cannot afford to lose yet more.

"Tobacco growing brings the farmers more profits than maize did. . . . "'What is happening in the Kunati Valley is being repeated in a thousand other places in all of Africa,' the All Africa Press Service says. 'Exports are being promoted at the expense of local consumption. In the long run the ecological basis of all production is being permanently destroyed.'"

"Worldwide, between 1.2 and 5.5 million ha of forest are destroyed annually to grow and cure tobacco," says John Revington, "The Causes of Tropical Deforestation."

"Clearing forests for tobacco production causes soil erosion and related ecological damage, and is responsible for deforestation in Brazil and in Africa," according to WFPHA Position Paper No. 98-1, adopted by the World Federation of Public Health Associations General Assembly, at its 32nd Annual Meeting 11 May 1998, citing D. Yach, Tobacco in Africa, World Health Forum, Vol. 17, 1996, and the Forum on Global Tobacco Control Policies - Background, San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition.

"The cutting of trees for tobacco-curing, and charcoal-burning have contributed to the depletion of trees in West Nile," says Frank Mugabi, "Uganda: Tobacco Farmers Deplete Trees" (18 November 2008). Reason: "tobacco, the region's major cash crop, requires large quantities of wood fuel to cure, and has forced farmers to indiscriminately cut down trees."

A 24 May 1999 British Medical Journal Tobacco Control Press Release reports that "An estimated 200,000 hectares of forest and woodland are removed by tobacco farming every year."

According to author B. Lupiya, "Tobacco Kills Brazilian Forests" (Aug. 21, 1997), the World Health Organisation says

"that one tree is needed for every 300 cigarettes produced globally. Some environmentalists say that to cure tobacco grown on 200,000 hectares of land, farmers need another 200,000 hectares of forest for wood. And a 1986 industry-commissioned report estimated that 7.8 kg of wood on average was needed to cure one kg of tobacco."

Lupiya quotes Wigold Bertoldo Schaffer, spokesperson for the Brazilian National Environmental Foundation, as saying,

"We have no more trees here. Tobacco farmers are replanting nothing. They have no conscience about the damage they are doing. They have no regard for the future." Lupiya explains that "Tobacco affects forests in two ways: first, trees have to be felled to create tobacco farms. Second, fuelwood is needed to cure - or dry out - the harvested tobacco crop from its natural green to the brownish colour seen in cigarettes."

In the 1840's, Dr. Hippolyte A. Depierris, Physiologie Sociale: Le Tabac, Qui Contient Le Plus Violent des Poisons (Paris: Dentu, 1876), pp 117-119, was noting the vegetation-killing effect of tobacco smoke.

Now, many years later, a former Vice-President, Albert Gore, Jr., winner of Nobel Prize 2007, publicly refers to the tobacco role in global warming. See article by Alex Knapp, "Gore: Cigarette Smoking Causes Global Warming" (29 September 2006). He identified cigarette smoking as a “significant contributor to global warming!” (Alex Knapp is hostile to the data, but the fact of such hostility establishes concern by apologists for tobacco pushers that the long-known data is finally reaching the public).

For additional background, see, e.g.,

  • Michael Allaby, A Chronology of Weather (New York: Facts on File, 1998) (Re "warning" of global warming, certain "atmospheric gases partially absorb the long-wave heat radiated from the land and sea surface after it has been warmed by the Sun; the absorbed heat warms the air [re What is] now being predicted . . . no warming has ever happened so fast. . . . we would be foolish to ignore the warning," p 7)

  • An Inconvenient Truth (documentary on the dangers of climate change and global warming)

  • "Ł3.68 trillion: The price of failing to act on climate change" (Landmark report reveals apocalyptic cost of global warming)

  • "Climate change fight 'can't wait'" (The UK prime minister urges swift action as a report warns climate change could shrink the global economy by 20%)

  • "Climate Change is Killing the Oceans' Microscopic 'Lungs'" (by Steve Connor, in the Independent (UK, 7 December 2006).

  • "U.N. finds threats from climate change quickly heating up" (Global warming is a rapidly advancing threat to human life, according to the authors of a major, comprehensive United Nations report released 8 April 2007 in Brussels.)

  • "Scientists get last say in climate study" (Diplomats from 115 countries and 52 scientists hashed out the most comprehensive and gloomiest warning yet about the possible effects of global warming, from increased flooding, hunger, drought and diseases to the extinction of species, 9 April 2007)

  • Tom Engelhardt, "Running Out of History" (The Nation, 12 May 2008) (cites "new information on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere [shows] it's at a record high of 387 parts per million (ppm), "up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years." 650,000 years. Think of that. The historical era is well less than 10,000 years old. According to a recent study by renown NASA climatologist Jim Hansen published in Science magazine, "if we wish to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed," we need to create the necessary conditions that will return us to 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere--and soon. Environmentalist Bill McKibben, who has started a new website called 350.org calls that 350 "the most important number on Earth." And, it cites changes "without historical precedent." In other words, there was nothing (repeat, nothing) in the historical record that provided a guide to what might happen next.")

  • Emily Dugan, "An epidemic of extinctions: Decimation of life on earth" (The independent (UK), 16 May 2008) ("the current extinction rate is now up to 10,000 times faster than what has historically been recorded as normal. . . . The study picked out five reasons for species decline, all of which can be traced back to human behaviour: climate change, pollution, the destruction of animals' natural habitat, the spread of invasive species, and the overexploitation of species.")

  • Tim Harper, "Earth Near Tipping Point, Climatologist Warns" (The Toronto Star, 24 June 2008) ("We have reached a point of planetary emergency,” he said. “There are tipping points in the climate system, which we are very close to, and if we pass them, the dynamics of the system take over and carry you to very large changes which are out of your control.”)

  • Shannon Jones, "US scientist calls for prosecution of energy company CEOs for global warming disinformation" (26 June 2008) ("In testimony before the US Congress on Monday, James Hansen, a leading climatologist, called heads of major energy companies criminals who should be prosecuted for deliberately spreading false and misleading information about the threat posed by global warming." See 18 USC § 1001.)

  • Meg White, "As Alaskan Village Sinks Into the Sea, GAO Says We Need to Create U.S. Office for Climate Change Refugee Assistance" (4 June 2009)

    • Related Deforestation Data Web Sites
    Tobacco in the 3rd World
    Tobacco: GDP Up, ISEW Down
    Tobacco in the Developing World
    Seismic Monitor

    A question arises: With deforestation capable of altering weather patterns, can there be an impact from a tobacco ban along these lines—less global warming, and fewer hurricanes and tornadoes, etc.?

    Any reader with references on the relationship between deforestation and altered weather patterns is invited to provide pertinent citations and quotes or summaries for consideration for adding here.

    The above writings began in 1982, and the request that readers submit input. Accordingly, more data and research are now included, e.g.,
  • "Study: Global Warming Making Hurricanes Stronger," by the Associated Press (31 July 2005)

  • "Global warming may pump up hurricane power," by Jeff Hecht, the NewScientist.com news service (13:44 01 August 2005).

  • "World's Most Important Crops Hit by Global Warming Effects," by Science Editor Steve Connor, in The Independent (19 March 2007).

  • Seth Borenstein (AP Science Writer), "NASA Study: Eastern U.S. to Get Hotter" (Associated Press, 11 May 2007) ("Instead of daily summer highs in the 1990s that averaged in the low to mid 80s Fahrenheit, the eastern United States is in for daily summer highs regularly in the low to mid 90s, the study found." "In the 2080s, the average summer high will probably be 102 degrees in Jacksonville, 100 degrees in Memphis, 96 degrees in Atlanta, and 91 degrees in Chicago and Washington." And: "simulated results for July 2085 . . . forecasted temperatures . . . past uncomfortable into painful. The study showed a map where the average high in the southeast neared 115 and pushed 100 in the northeast. Even Canada flirted with the low to mid 90s." (The study abstract is online: Lynn, B.H., R. Healy, and L.M. Druyan, 2007: An analysis of the potential for extreme temperature change based on observations and model simulations. J. Climate, 20, 1539-1554, doi:10.1175/JCLI4219.1).

  • Tim Johnson, "Warming Triggers ‘Alarming’ Retreat of Himalayan Glaciers, McClatchy Newspapers (Saturday, 12 May 2007) ("Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps getting warmer at the current rate.”)

  • Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor, "Global warming 'is three times faster than worst predictions'" (The Independent, 3 June 2007)

  • Amelia Gentleman, "Chair of UN climate panel 'stunned' to share Nobel Prize with Gore" (International Herald Tribune, 12 October 2007) ("more than two decades first working on making the links between man's activities and climate change, and then on convincing the world's population of the damage those activities were doing")

  • Steve Connor, Science Editor, "No ice at the North Pole: Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change" (27 June 2008) ("It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.")

  • Duncan Clark, "World Will Warm Faster Than Predicted in Next Five Years, Study Warns" (The Guardian/UK, 27 July 2009) ("the new research suggests, temperatures will shoot up at 150% of the rate predicted")

  • Bonnie Malkin, "Climate Change to Force 75 Million Pacific Islanders From Their Homes" (The Telegraph/UK, 27 July 2009) ("Pacific Islanders were already feeling the effects of global warming, including food and water shortages, rising cases of malaria and more frequent flooding and storms. Some had already been forced from their homes and the number of displaced people was rising")

  • Dan Vergano, "Future US Heat Waves Will Be Worse" (USAToday, 26 August 2009) ("The nation is headed for strong heat waves in coming decades that will hit cities and farmers and threaten wildlife with extinction, a new global warming report warns.")

  • Sen. John Kerry, "We Can't Ignore the Security Threat from Climate Change" (31 August 2009) ("Scientists tell us we have a 10-year window -- if even that -- before catastrophic climate change becomes inevitable and irreversible. The threat is real, and time is not on our side.")

    • Brian Murphy, AP Religion Writer, in “Green Gospels: Environmental movement hits religious mainstream,” The Macomb Daily, page 3B (8 July 2006), cites Patriarch Bartholmew I as leading “green journeys" to promote the environment. “More than a decade ago . . . the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians [concluded] that pollution and other attacks on the environment could be considered sins." "In June, Pope Benedict XVI [said] to shun 'fake freedoms which destroy the environment and man.'" "In Iran, Grand Ayatollah Yusef Saanei said it was 'the duty of every Muslim' to protect the environment. Many fatwas, or religious edicts, across the Muslim world echo similar Quranic readings that God entrusted humans to protect the earth."

    Murphy also cited "Muslim clerics urging weather conservation in the fast-growing Gulf states [and] evangelical preachers in the United States calling attention to global warming." "[T]he Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life draws clear links between Judaic traditions and the battles to ease global warming. In China, a Buddhist conference in April urged greater emphasis on environmental protection. Hindu religious scholars have raised alarms about possible environmental fallout from the rapid modernization in India."

    Murphy also said, "[t]he Evangelical Environmental Network--best known for its clean-air campaign "What Would Jesus Drive?'--opened a new effort earlier this year against global warming, the Evangelical Climate Initiative."

    See also Colin Woodard, "Orthodox leader blesses green agenda," The Christian Science Monitor (24 July 2003). "Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew . . . has urged fellow clerics to see protecting the environment as 'God's work.'" "To protect the oceans is to do God's work." "To harm them, even if we are ignorant of the harm we cause, is to diminish His divine creation." "In 1997, Bartholomew declared that the wanton destruction of nature was a sin, as were actions that caused the extinction of species; altered the climate; stripped the world of its forests; and poisoned the air, land, and water." See also the Ecumenical Patriarchate Website.

    For similar views, see Douglas S. Winnail, "How Will the Earth Be Restored?" and "Eco-crisis — the Real Significance!," and Revelation 8:7-11 and Revelation 16:8-9 (predictions of environmental devastation and scorching heat), caused by the "destroyers of the earth," Revelation 11:18. (Compare with warnings against business activity, Nehemiah 13:20-21, Zechariah 14:21, Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, Acts 19:23-28, and Revelation 18:11-20). See example citing that corporate "priests destroy the forests and mountains." And see lobbyist Dick Armey deny the truth of Revelation 11:18.

    Marc D. Davidson, in "Parallels in reactionary argumentation in the US congressional debates on the abolition of slavery and the Kyoto Protocol," Climatic Change, Vol 86 (# 1-2) (January 2008), pp 67-82, cites "similarities between the rationalisation of slavery in the abolition debates and the rationalisation of ongoing emissions of greenhouse gases in the US congressional debates on the Kyoto Protocol." Historically we see how preposterous the claims made in favour of slavery were. Prof. Davidson argues that they bear striking resemblance to claims made against taking action on climate change. The implication is that some years down the line, in a century or two perhaps, the comments of climate "deniers" will seem just as shocking as those of the slave owners of the 1800s.

    Edward Harris, "Rain Forests Fall at ‘Alarming’ Rate" (3 February 2008) ("Deforestation continues at an alarming rate of about 13 million hectares (32 million acres) a year . . . that means 50,000 square miles of tropical forest are being cleared every 12 months - equivalent to one Mississippi or more than half a Britain”). See also Sir Martin Rees, "Earth in its final century?"

    Frances Fitzgerald, "The New Evangelicals," The New Yorker (30 June 2008), pp 28-34.

              Smoking leads to alcoholism, drug abuse, mental disorder. All of these impair judgement, including management of resources for the future.

              Cigarettes contain toxic chemicals. Deaths are "natural and probable consequences." Pursuant to standard lawbook definitions, nonsmokers' involuntary foreseeable deaths constitute murder. The high number of deaths is a "holocaust" according to the Royal Society of Physicians' 1971 criteria, and is part of the total genocide problem.

    Prevention of Deforestation Via Banning Cigarettes

             In 1897, Tennessee passed what was in essence a 'deforestation prevention act,' in the form of a law banning manufacture and sale of deleterious and adulterated cigarettes. The tobacco lobby sued to have the Tennessee law struck down as supposedly unconstitutional. However, the courts upheld the law—all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

             Soon Michigan followed Tennessee's lead. In 1909, during the administration of three-term activist Governor Fred Warner, the Michigan legislature passed a law forbidding manufacture, giveaway, and sale of cigarettes. That law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, serving as a deforestation prevention act, bans

    "any person within the state" from action that "manufactures, sells or gives to anyone, any cigarette containing any ingredient deleterious to health or foreign to tobacco . . . ."

              Of course, all cigarettes contain deleterious items. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress: a Report of the Surgeon General, Publication CDC 89-8411, Table 7, pp 86-87 (1989), lists examples of deleterious ingredients including but not limited to:

    acetaldehyde (1.4+ mg)arsenic (500+ ng)benzo(a)pyrene (.1+ ng)
    cadmium (1,300+ ng)crotonaldehyde (.2+ µg)chromium (1,000+ ng)
    ethylcarbamate 310+ ng)formaldehyde (1.6+ µg)hydrazine (14+ ng)
    lead (8+ µg)nickel (2,000+ ng)radioactive polonium (.2+ Pci)

    Wherefore cigarettes are illegal in Michigan. Enforcement of the law banning manufacture would foreseeably assist in the effort against deforestation. Former Michigan Governor John Engler and staff were paper supportive of action to enforce Michigan's law, issuing five pertinent memoranda.
    Exec Order 1992-3 Law Support Letter # 1 Anti-Cigarette Smuggling Finding Law Support Letter # 2 Governor's Overview

             What this site is asking is your help in (a) getting the, in essence, deforestation prevention law enforced, and (b) getting all other governments to pass the same law in their areas. Please help us save forests, by preventing the tobacco-related portion of deforestation.

             To fight this problem, here are four sample letters. "A" is to Governor Jennifer Granholm Engler asking her to have the State Police enforce the Michigan law. "B" is to Attorney General Mike Cox asking him to enforce the law. Each has the authority to help. As both the Governor and Attorney General are lawyers, the letters are written in "legalese." Sample letter "C" is to the State Police Director asking for enforcement. Sample letter "D" is different, and is for you to send where the government still ignores the tobacco-deforestation link. It is to be sent to the President, Congress, other Governors, and state legislators.

    * * * Sample Letter A * * *

    Honorable Jennifer Granholm
    Governor, State of Michigan
    P. O. Box 30013
    Lansing MI 48909-7513

    Dear Governor Granholm:

             This is a request that you assign the Michigan State Police to enforce the deforestation prevention law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216.

               "Clearing forests for tobacco production causes soil erosion and related ecological damage, and is responsible for deforestation in Brazil and in Africa," according to WFPHA Position Paper No. 98-1, adopted by the World Federation of Public Health Associations General Assembly, at its 32nd Annual Meeting 11 May 1998, citing D. Yach, Tobacco in Africa, World Health Forum, Vol. 17, 1996, and the Forum on Global Tobacco Control Policies - Background, San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition.

                A 24 May 1999 British Medical Journal Tobacco Control Press Release reports that "An estimated 200,000 hectares of forest and woodland are removed by tobacco farming every year."

              The cigarette control law, in essence a deforestation prevention act, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, prevents the tobacco aspect of deforestation.

             The deforestation prevention act, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, forbids "any person within the state" from action that "manufactures, sells or gives to anyone, any cigarette containing any ingredient deleterious to health or foreign to tobacco . . . ." Please assign the Michigan State Police to enforce it, and aid county sheriffs and local police departments to do likewise.

             All cigarettes are deleterious, their label admits they are, and most if not all are adulterated with additives. MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, puts personal responsibility on those with most knowledge of the contraband substance (manufacturers and sellers), not on unwary consumers, often children.

             State Police enforcement action is a normal action that they do in other state-wide law violation situations. There are precedents as well. Austin v State, 101 Tenn 563; 48 SW 305; 70 Am St Rep 703 (1898) aff'd 179 US 343 (1898); Shimp v N J Bell Tele Co, 145 N J Super 516; 368 A2d 408 (1976); Commonwealth v Hughes, 468 Pa 502; 364 A2d 306 (1976); and Smith v Western Elec Co, 643 SW2d 10, 13 (Mo App, 1982).

             As a matter of law, all persons suffering from this deleterious and adulterated product need enforcement to occur. Please assign the State Police to protect us all, by enforcing the deforestation prevention act, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216. Please have them halt the rampant violations, and interdict deleterious and adulterated cigarettes.

    Respectfully,

    * * * Sample Letter B * * *

    Honorable Mike Cox
    Attorney General, State of Michigan
    P. O. Box 30213
    Lansing MI 48909

    Dear Attorney General Cox:

             This is a request that you take "cease and desist" action to stop violations of the deforestation prevention law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216.

               "Clearing forests for tobacco production causes soil erosion and related ecological damage, and is responsible for deforestation in Brazil and in Africa," according to WFPHA Position Paper No. 98-1, adopted by the World Federation of Public Health Associations General Assembly, at its 32nd Annual Meeting 11 May 1998, citing D. Yach, Tobacco in Africa, World Health Forum, Vol. 17, 1996, and the Forum on Global Tobacco Control Policies - Background, San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition.

                A 24 May 1999 British Medical Journal Tobacco Control Press Release reports that "An estimated 200,000 hectares of forest and woodland are removed by tobacco farming every year."

              The cigarette control law, in essence a deforestation prevention act, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, prevents the tobacco aspect of deforestation.

             The deforestation prevention act, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, forbids "any person within the state" from action that "manufactures, sells or gives to anyone, any cigarette containing any ingredient deleterious to health or foreign to tobacco . . . ." "Cease and desist" action is an action you take in other state-wide law violation cases.

             All cigarettes are deleterious, their label admits they are, and most if not all are adulterated with additives. MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, puts personal responsibility on those with most knowledge of the contraband substance (manufacturers and sellers), not on unwary consumers, often children.

             "Cease and desist" action is a normal action that you do in other state-wide law violation situations. There are precedents, for example, Austin v State, 101 Tenn 563; 48 SW 305; 70 Am St Rep 703 (1898) aff'd 179 US 343 (1898); Shimp v N J Bell Tele Co, 145 N J Super 516; 368 A2d 408 (1976); Commonwealth v Hughes, 468 Pa 502; 364 A2d 306 (1976); and Smith v Western Elec Co, 643 SW2d 10, 13 (Mo App, 1982).

    As a matter of law, all persons suffering from this deleterious and adulterated product need enforcement to occur. Please take "cease and desist" action to protect us all, by enforcing the cigarette control law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216. Please take "cease and desist" action to halt the rampant violations.

    Respectfully,

    * * * Sample Letter C * * *

    Col. Peter C. Munoz, Director
    Department of State Police
    714 South Harrison Road
    East Lansing MI 48823

    Dear Col. Munoz:

    This is a request that you assign officers to enforce the deforestation prevention law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216.

               "Clearing forests for tobacco production causes soil erosion and related ecological damage, and is responsible for deforestation in Brazil and in Africa," according to WFPHA Position Paper No. 98-1, adopted by the World Federation of Public Health Associations General Assembly, at its 32nd Annual Meeting 11 May 1998, citing D. Yach, Tobacco in Africa, World Health Forum, Vol. 17, 1996, and the Forum on Global Tobacco Control Policies - Background, San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition.

                A 24 May 1999 British Medical Journal Tobacco Control Press Release reports that "An estimated 200,000 hectares of forest and woodland are removed by tobacco farming every year."

              The cigarette control law, in essence a deforestation prevention act, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, prevents the tobacco aspect of deforestation.

             The law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, forbids "any person within the state" from action that "manufactures, sells or gives to anyone, any cigarette containing any ingredient deleterious to health or foreign to tobacco . . . ." Please work with prosecutors, assign officers to enforce the law, and aid county sheriffs and local police departments to do likewise.

             All cigarettes are deleterious, their label admits they are, and most if not all are adulterated with additives. MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, puts personal responsibility on those with most knowledge of the contraband substance (manufacturers and sellers), not on unwary consumers, often children.

             State Police enforcement action is a normal action that officers do in other state-wide law violation situations. There are precedents as well. Austin v State, 101 Tenn 563; 48 SW 305; 70 Am St Rep 703 (1898) aff'd 179 US 343 (1898); Shimp v N J Bell Tele Co, 145 N J Super 516; 368 A2d 408 (1976); Commonwealth v Hughes, 468 Pa 502; 364 A2d 306 (1976); and Smith v Western Elec Co, 643 SW2d 10, 13 (Mo App, 1982).

             As a matter of law, all persons suffering from this deleterious and adulterated product need enforcement to occur. Please assign officers to protect us all, by enforcing the cigarette control law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216. Please have them halt the rampant violations, and interdict deleterious and adulterated cigarettes.

    Respectfully,

    * * * Sample Letter D * * *

    President George W. BushU.S. Senator _______U.S. Representative __Governor ___ State Senator __State Representative __
    1600 Pennsylvania AvenueSenate Office BuildingHouse Office BuildingState CapitolState CapitolState Capitol
    Washington DC 20500Washington DC 20510Washington DC 20515City State ZipCity State ZipCity State Zip

             This is a request that you take action to get a law passed that will serve as a deforestation prevention law. Michigan already has such a law. It is law number MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216. It has an effect of dealing with the tobacco link to deforestation.

               "Clearing forests for tobacco production causes soil erosion and related ecological damage, and is responsible for deforestation in Brazil and in Africa," according to WFPHA Position Paper No. 98-1, adopted by the World Federation of Public Health Associations General Assembly, at its 32nd Annual Meeting 11 May 1998, citing D. Yach, Tobacco in Africa, World Health Forum, Vol. 17, 1996, and the Forum on Global Tobacco Control Policies - Background, San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition.

                A 24 May 1999 British Medical Journal Tobacco Control Press Release reports that "An estimated 200,000 hectares of forest and woodland are removed by tobacco farming every year."

             The Michigan cigarette control law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, in essence, a deforestation prevention act, serves to preclude that aspect of deforestation linked to tobacco.

             Please get a copy of that law, which in essence forbids "any person within the state" from action that "manufactures, sells or gives to anyone, any cigarette containing any ingredient deleterious to health or foreign to tobacco . . . ."

             All cigarettes are deleterious, their label admits they are, and most if not all are adulterated with additives. Michigan's well-written law act deals with a cause of deforestation (not to mention disease and death). Michigan's act puts personal responsibility on those with most knowledge of the contraband substance (manufacturers and sellers who know its harmful effects), not on unwary consumers, often children.

             As a matter of protecting us all, we all need you to take action to get a tobacco-related deforestation prevention act adopted. Please take action to copy the Michigan law, MCL § 750.27, MSA § 28.216, so all of us can benefit from its wise prevention-oriented approach.

    Respectfully,

    * * * * *

    Please re-type, add recipient addresses where unlisted,
    add your name and return address, sign, and mail the above letters.
    The person you save may be yourself or your friend.
    If you wish, you can use different wording.

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    Cigarettes' Toxic Chemicals Medical Statistics Smoker Crime Smoker Heart Disease
    Prevent SIDS Smoker Addiction Smoker Brain Damage Smoker Mental Disorder

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