As the university additionally points out, Each year, 20,000 hectares of forests are cleared to cure tobacco(with approximately 1000-2500 trees per hectare, which equals 20 to 50 million trees cut down every year, depending on type of tree)
31, 1970, just one minute before a federal ban went into effect
dailies was entitled A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers. It declared that interest in peoples health is a basic responsibility, paramount to every other consideration in business. Yet it also added, We believe the products we make are not injurious to health, claiming that one by one charges that cigarettes are injurious have been abandoned for lack of evidence. Tobacco companies were not content merely to deny that cigarettes are harmful
Citations: Fact Sheet: Environmental Impact of Tobacco (Portland State University)
They are just waiting for the right political cover to come out in public with their views