Smoking is a matter of personal choice but it seriously damages the health of those around us. It poses threat not only to smokers but also to non-smokers and the environment.
Though there is a lot of information on the adverse and even lethal effects of smoking on the human body, scanty of knowledge is available on the environmental impact of tobacco and smoking.
Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemical compounds, including over 40 known carcinogens and 600 other toxins such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia, cyanide, etc. These shocking substances end up in the air we breathe, in the water we drink and in the soil that feeds us. With such a great percentage of smokers on Earth, the amount of pollution released into the environment on a daily basis is immense.
Some smokers are often negligent and discard cigarette butts onto the ground where it takes about 25 years for all these chemicals to decompose, thus spreading pollution. Other smokers, heedless of negative consequences, throw cigarette butts directly in rivers and lakes where they endanger the local fauna. Smokers are also responsible for many of the forest fires started by a discarded lit cigarette butt. A single but is sufficient to destroy thousands of acres of pristine forests, together with multiple plant and animal species that inhabit them.
A recent study of ocean waste, conducted in several marine regions, has revealed some disturbing results. Researchers have found out that out of the 103 million classified marine pollutants, 25 million are cigarette butts and whole cigarettes.
Furthermore, cigarette production itself, has a serious detrimental impact on our environment. The facts are devastating – it takes 1 tree for every 300 cigarettes that are produced while 4 miles of paper per hour are used to roll and package the ready production. If you add up all natural resources that are used during the manufacturing process (plus the toxic chemical wastage), it is obvious that smoking and cigarettes are extremely hazardous to mankind and the environment.