Jakarta, Indonesia. The Sampoerna Strategic Square, built by billionaire Putera Sampoerna, owner of the largest tobacco company of Indonesia, and housing several business offices, among which the Sampoerna Foundation, the only element of the company retained by the family after the sale of the company to Philip Morris International in 2005.

Periyapatna, India. A farmer's child sitting on a tobacco bale on the floor of a tobacco auction house. According to the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO), about 1.3 million children work in tobacco fields, with the number increasing in certain countries like India and Zimbabwe. A recent study estimates more than 1.7 million children work in India's bidi rolling industry. The UN’s Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) aims to reduce the number of children engaged in tobacco farming by providing alternative livelihoods.

Yuxi, China. The Hongta cigarette factory production line. The company claims that this is the world's most advanced cigarette production line, with fully automated robots. In the Yuxi factory, more than 135 billion sticks are produced per year, covering 12% of China's total production. China is the largest producer of cigarettes in the world.

Goldsboro, NC, USA. Miguel, 14, a Mexican migrant, works long days picking tobacco leaves with his family, earning $8 per hour. U.S. law permits teens to work on tobacco farms, exposing them to nicotine absorption equivalent to 36 cigarettes a day in humid conditions. This leads to green tobacco sickness, causing nausea, headaches, and potential long-term effects. With lower body mass, children face greater risks from nicotine and farm chemicals. Migrants, many undocumented, make up nearly half of U.S. agricultural workers.

Nipani, India. Harvested tobacco drying in a field. In Nipani, almost 70% of tax revenue is derived from bidi tobacco. While tobacco is considered one of the most labour-intensive and chemically-heavy crops to work with, its economic value has less worth than other crops in the region, like sugarcane.

Gorno Dryanovo, Bulgaria. Indja, 11 years old, stringing tobacco leaves and preparing them for drying. The Rhodope Mountain region is the poorest of the country with high unemployment rates and low education levels. After the 2008 economic crisis, child labour in the tobacco fields saw a sharp increase. As a result, Bulgarian tobacco is the cheapest in the EU.

Skrebatno, Bulgaria. Farmers collecting tobacco leaves before the arrival of a storm. Certain weather conditions can affect the quality of tobacco, and reduce the earning potential for farmers, who can rarely afford to be insured against the loss of crops. Tobacco is the only cash crop farmers in the Rhodope Mountains can rely upon.

Nipani, India. Inside the tobacco deposit of 30 Brand Products Bharat Beedis company, opened in 1930, one of the main bidi producers of the area, collecting 3,000 tons of tobacco and producing 5 million bidis each year. Bidis are the most consumed tobacco product in India, with 125 million bidi smokers.

Milan, Italy. A Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) scanning machine at the European Institute of Oncology, used to detect cancer. This type of expensive equipment is not available to most cancer patients in the world. The global economic cost of smoking is 1,852 billion USD—equivalent in magnitude to 1.8% of the world’s annual gross domestic product.

Chunhezhen, China. A shop supplies chemicals to local tobacco farmers, supporting one of the most chemically-intensive crops. Tobacco farming relies heavily on pesticides, herbicides, and fertilisers, which contaminate water sources through runoff and deplete soil nutrients. Farmers replenish soils with chemical fertilisers, contributing to eutrophication—excessive nutrient enrichment of waters, promoting algae growth and oxygen depletion.

Munich, Germany. Henkel, a chemical and consumer goods company exhibiting at the World Tobacco Expo. Each year, nearly 6 trillion cigarettes are smoked around the globe. Every cigarette is held together by around 0.018 grams of adhesive. The supply of tobacco adhesives is a multimillion-dollar industry, with various companies competing for business. German-based Henkel serves tobacco companies by offering a production facility on each continent.

Nipani, India. Tobacco labourer Dipali Lohar in a mixed field with bidi tobacco and sorgum. This technique helps farmers reduce their dependency on tobacco. In Nipani, almost 70% of tax revenue is derived from bidi tobacco, accounting for 20% of India's total production.

South Hill, VA, USA. The Tobacco farm Life Museum of Virginia. In the main producing states, tobacco is still regarded as a crucial crop to support the local economy. Its iconic role in society is also underlined by a number of smaller museums, celebrating its history and importance.

Durham, NC, USA. A view of the American Tobacco Historic District. The city of Durham restored and reconverted the former American Tobacco Company factory built by James Buchanan Duke in the 1800s into restaurants, shops and other amenities. Although cigarettes are no longer manufactured in Durham, the American Tobacco Historic District ‘preserves the physical legacy of one of America's great entrepreneurial success stories.’

Lucama, N.C., USA. Laborer in front of a curing barn at Sullivan Farms. Leaves will dry, getting ready to be sold. With 650 acres of tobacco and 40 seasonal laborers working in the farm, the Randy Edwards estate is investing in more fuel-efficient curing machines. However, buying and running barns is expensive. Farmers complain for the increasingly lower prices paid by companies for tobacco leaves. "If a pack if cigarettes is 5 USD, farmers get about 5 cents", says Randy Edwards.

Nipani, India. A bidi tobacco taster employed by Shah Chhaganlal Ugarchand, one of the largest tobacco commission agents of the region. A tobacco taster can smoke up to 100 bidis per day to grade the different batches of tobacco before purchase.

Munich, Germany. Cigarette packaging company during the World Tobacco Expo 2011. The event brings together companies involved in the manufacturing of cigarette, from rolling machines, to packaging, to additives. Every year a number of these events are held in USA, Asia, Europe.

Francolise, Italy. Women working at the main sorting line of the Deltafina threshing plant. Here, leaves purchased by tobacco dealers are evaluated, sorted and cut before being sent to cigarette manufacturers. No precautions are implemented for workers to reduce the intake of tobacco dust and the risk of nicotine poisoning.

Milan, Italy. Surgeon Giulia Veronesi dissecting a cancerous lung at the European Institute of Oncology. Tobacco smoking is the most established cause of lung cancer and other diseases and an estimated one third of the world’s adult population—around 1.1 billion individuals—smoke tobacco, making every sixth human being a smoker.

Parade, organised by Djarum, inside a waterpark. Salespeople are typically female students who must sign an exclusivity contract stating they will not work for any other tobacco company. Tobacco companies in Indonesia have a high-profile presence in music, sport and cultural events, from local to international-level events. Indonesia has been labeled the ‘tobacco industry’s Disneyland’ by organisations involved in tobacco control, that claim these sponsorships are clearly aimed at new young potential tobacco consumers.

Sežana, Slovenia. Slovenian customs officials on the lookout for trucks arriving from Ukraine—the leading source of contraband cigarettes shipped to the EU. Over 4.8 billion cigarettes are smuggled from Ukraine each year, accounting for almost 11% of the total contraband volume shipped to the EU. Revenue generated by the illicit tobacco trade is comparable to that of cocaine or heroin markets in the EU.

Benevento, Italy. The central deposit for counterfeit and illegally imported cigarettes in the South of Italy, located in the former state cigarette manufacturing plant. Seized cigarettes are stored in order to verify their origin and legal status and are later destroyed. In recent years, illicit tobacco trade has grown. Italy acts as a core transit hub for illegal tobacco, given its position as a bridge between Eastern Europe, North Africa and the broader EU.

Lagos, Nigeria. Oluwafemi Akinbode, deputy director of Environmental Rights Action–Friends of the Earth Nigeria. Nigeria’s economy is the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa and represents a key tobacco industry market in Africa because of its population size and access to other markets in the region. In 2015 the National Tobacco Control Act was passed, but has yet to be fully implemented. The delay is in part because tobacco industry representatives outnumber those from others on the committee responsible for writing guidelines for the Act.

Milan, Italy. Serenella Pacifici, seventy-one-years-old, in the surgery ward of the European Institute of Oncology, waiting to be operated on for lung cancer. She has smoked since the age of seventeen. In Italy, 7% of the funds spent on the healthcare system are used on treatments linked to smoking.