Behind every pack of cigarettes there is a multinational, a lobbying strategy, a tax framework, and a colossal environmental footprint. This category steps out of the intimate register to help you see tobacco for what it also is: a global industry worth hundreds of billions, doing everything it can to stay in our lives.
You will discover here the Big Four of tobacco and their 2026 profits, the lobbying tactics in Brussels and at the WHO, the countries that have (almost) won their battle against tobacco (Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom), the reality of the European black market, the actual breakdown of tax revenue, the 4.5 trillion butts dumped into nature every year, and the little-known impact of tobacco farming on global deforestation.
Understanding the enemy is also a way to free yourself a little from its grip.
Articles in this category
- Pillar The tobacco industry in 2026: Big Four, profits, strategies and revenues of the cigarette makers Who are the tobacco giants in 2026? How much do they earn? How are they reinventing themselves? An overview of the Big Four — PMI, BAT, JTI, Imperial — with official figures.
- Tobacco lobbying in Brussels, at the UN and inside the FCTC: how Big Tobacco shapes policy 257 lobby meetings in 2 years in Brussels, ghost NGOs, political capture: this is how the tobacco industry slows down public-health policy.
- The countries that (almost) beat tobacco: Sweden, New Zealand, the UK — lessons to learn Sweden 5.4%, New Zealand 6.8%, UK 10.6%: these countries have massively cut smoking rates. Here are the policies that actually worked.
- Tobacco black market and smuggling: scale, health risks and lost revenue Roughly 12% of cigarettes smoked in the UK come from the black market. What are the health risks, the tax losses and the real causes?
- Where does tobacco tax money go? The "tobacco pays for the State" debate untangled Around £10 billion in tax revenue, £17 billion in social costs: tobacco costs the State far more than it brings in. The full calculation.
- Cigarette butts and pollution: 4.5 trillion thrown away each year, the invisible environmental impact 4.5 trillion butts thrown away each year, 7,000 toxic substances released, microplastics by the billion: the invisible environmental impact of tobacco.
- Tobacco and deforestation: the overlooked environmental impact of tobacco farming on the world's forests 600 million trees felled every year, 5% of global deforestation, land plundered in the Global South: the ecological flipside of tobacco.