While, admittedly, there was a brief time I smoked cigarettes regularly (hey, I was living in Spain, give me a break), I’ve always found it EXTREMELY maddening that not only do smokers foul the air, but they toss their butts all over the damn place. I live next to the Long Island Sound, and there’s nothing more disgusting than digging a hole with your feet in the sun-warmed beach sand and finding a cache of used butts.
Hey, I understand, you smokers are addicted. Fine, I know you can barely smoke anywhere now anyway, and I feel for you, or I would if you weren’t such damn slobs about the whole thing. My good friend Danielle loves her a cig, but never litters them – she keeps a small portable ashtray (check this one out from Butts and Gum) or finds a trash can. I applaud her, and all the smokers who roll their own or dispose of their butts in a way that keeps birds and marine mammals from eating them, or going into the sewer, or polluting the Earth (cigararettes, we all know, have a host of toxic chemicals in them. Not so good for your body, but also, those chemicals get concentrated in the butts, and when you litter them, that nastiness gets in the soil and water-ugh!)
Horrifyingly enough, since everyone is smoking outside now, the environmental toll of smoking has increased, because people are throwing more butts around the streets and outdoor areas, instead of ashtrays, according to this commentary on E Magazine’s weekly newsletter. Here’s the disturbing info:
The paper and tobacco of cigarette butts may be biodegradable, but the filters are not, and persist in the environment as long as other forms of plastic. These filters are composed of a bundle of 12,000 cellulose acetate fibers and are reported to take between 18 months and 10 years to decompose, depending on the environment they’re in. Once decomposed, they remain chemically present in the environment, as they contain up to 4,000 chemicals including hydrogen, cyanide and arsenic. Toxological data has shown that chemicals from discarded cigarette butts are capable of leaching into surrounding waterways. One particular problem is that these leached chemicals are deadly to the water flea Daphnia magna, a small crustacean at the lower end of, but crucial to, the aquatic food chain.
The saddest environmental impact of cigarette butts is their role in the deaths of thousands of marine mammals and birds every year. These wild creatures mistake the butts for food. Once ingested, the butts can lead to starvation or malnutrition if they block the intestinal track, and can also prevent breathing by blocking vital air passages. In 2003, the United Nations International Maritime Organization reported that cigarette litter adversely affected 177 species of marine animals and 111 species of seabirds through ingestion.
If you smoke, please consider giving it up for New Year’s! And if you must smoke, try rolling your own- you’ll smoke less and without a filter there’s not so much waste.
Here here!! This is an issue we are all confronted with daily. Starre I am really glad you coined this as an environmental concern also, as it has long been overlooked by so many. Being an ex-smoker also, I have to say there is nothing about this habit that is reasonable to me anymore. When I am out hiking or go to a beautiful spot, I always try to pick up the beer cans and butts. Its just awful how decimated our land is by the nicotine delivery device!
Did you know that 1200 people die per day as a direct result of cigarettes? This is more than those who die of illicit drug and alcohol use combined! Did you also know that if you put one drop of pure nicotine on your tongue you would die almost instantly?
People have been duped by the big tobacco perveyors of this country. The marketing, geared toward youth, fools people into thinking they are going to be cool if they dip or smoke, when the reality is, they are killing themselves. For more info on tobacco http://www.thetruth.com has incredible resources – including actual corporate reports that reveal the focused marketing toward various demographics, including minorities, women, youth, etc…
Don’t believe the hype!!
By the way, have you seen Thank You For Smoking? It is awesome!
12/23/06 » 12:22 pm »