Tobacco is not only detrimental to humanhealth, it is also harming the environment, the World Health Organization says in a new study.

According to in conjunction with Wednesday's World No Tobacco Day 2017, WHO noted that for the first time in its history, researchers associated with the United Nations organization studied the environmental impacts linked to the cultivation oftobacco,and made some troubling discoveries.

The scientists found that tobacco wastecontains more than 7,000 toxic chemicals that poison the environment. WHO noted that10 billion of the 15 billion cigarettes sold daily are disposed ofin the environment and accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all items collected in coastal and urban clean-ups.

"Tobacco smoke emissions contribute thousands of tons of human carcinogens, toxicantsand greenhouse gases to the environment," the organization said in the report. "And tobacco waste is the largest type of litter by count globally ... from start to finish, the tobacco life cycle is an overwhelmingly polluting and damaging process."

In light of its findings, the organization is urging governments to implement strong tobacco control measures, whichaccordingto WHO should includeputting a stop to marketing and advertisingtobacco products, promoting plain packaging of tobacco products, raising excise taxesand making indoor public places and workplaces smoke-free.

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"Tobacco growing, the manufacture of tobacco products and their delivery to retailers all have severe environmental consequences, including deforestation, the use of fossil fuels and the dumping or leaking of waste products into the natural environment," said Oleg Chestnov, WHO Assistant Director-General."But by taking robust tobacco control measures, governments can safeguard their countries' futures by protecting tobacco users and non-users from these deadly products, generating revenues to fund health and other social servicesand saving their environments from the ravages tobacco causes."

In addition to theenvironmentalconcerns, the report noted that tobaccouse kills 7 million people a year andcosts households and governments over $1.4 trillion through healthcare expenditure and lost productivity.

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