Cigarettes... An overlooked entity?

I recently saw a powerful advert by the Food and Drug Administration, encouraging people to stop smoking. It got me thinking about how harmful they are, not just to humans... to the environment.

It comes as no surprise that it can impact the environment in some way. We are blowing out thousands of chemicals, from arsenic and ammonia to hydrogen cyanide, which aren't exactly a good thing. All of these chemicals have the potential to be absorbed by the globes' water, damaging fish and micro-organisms.

But it's not just the toxic chemicals that are harming the environment - production and waste is a major problem.

600 million trees are cut down every year to make the papers for the 6 trillion cigarettes that are produced globally each year. A length of 4 miles of paper is used to produce cigarettes each hour! And machines are used to make them, powered by coal no doubt.

Countries where tobacco is grown, like Uganda, have experienced massive areas of deforestation. According to an article by IRIN Africa, the country has lost almost a third of its trees in the past 20 years, and unless we stop exploiting these forests, by 2050 there won't be any left! This will have a huge detrimental impact on the country in many aspects; agriculture will decline, the majority of the population will suffer, farmers won't be able to harvest, water resources will be scarce, diseases will spread, and animals will disappear, with some species becoming extinct.

Then there's the cigarettes themselves. Globally, two thirds (about 4.6 trillion) of all cigarettes smoked are being tossed into the environment. Butts and filters are the most common waste product being found and cleaned up on beaches world wide. A handful of studies have suggested that chemicals absorbed into the butts and filters, such as pesticides and arsenic are seeping into water, affecting aquatic life. Butts that are discarded on the roadside also contaminate the environment by releasing chemicals, and heavy metals such as lead and copper. 

The majority of filters are made of paper and rayon wrapping, which controls the airflow. Glue is also used to hold the cigarette and filter together, and a variety of alkali metal salts are found in cigarettes to help keep them burning. Plastic is also used in many of the filters, which is non-biodegradable - a problem which you should now be familiar with if you've been keeping up to date with my blogs!

All of these elements pose a massive threat, because they can remain in the environment forever. (Novotny et al 2014)

It's not just small organisms and marine life that are effected, humans are too. These chemicals can contaminate the food we eat, and the water we drink. Below is a great diagram I found that shows some of the ways in which humans are at risk:

People need to be made more aware about the impacts of cigarettes on the environment, not just to our own health. As an ex-smoker, I definitely didn't think twice about these threats, or what damage flicking a butt out of my car window can actually do. At least with some awareness, maybe it can encourage people to discard butts and packets properly (in the designated bins).