Quit Smoking Today, Save the Environment!
Cigarettes here, cigarettes there. They’re everywhere. Most of us know how dangerous smoking can be to our health. But did you also know that it does have harmful effects on the environment too?
Below are the major effects of smoking to the environment:
1. It Causes Air Pollution
Topping the list is air pollution. There are over 4,000 chemicals that are released into the air when tobacco is burned. Most if not all of them are toxic compounds that pollute not just humans but animals and all other living organisms. When the smoker puffs and exhales, more chemicals are added, including carbon monoxide, making it more dangerous.
2. Cigarette Smoke Triggers Fire
Did you know that careless smoking is the number one cause of fire in homes and forest? An inch-long cigarette butt can burn a big house. In turn, fire releases tons of pollution into the atmosphere, intoxicating people, plants and animals. The fumes from fire are very harmful that several minutes of suffocation can be deadly.
3. It Harms Plants and Animals
In the US, tobacco plantations ranked 6th among the high-priced crops that necessitate pesticides. There are 13 types of pesticides used in tobacco and all of them have been shown to produce adverse effects to human and animal health. In what way do they become harmful in the environment? Aside from getting ingested by smokers, left-over pesticides are absorbed by the soil and water.
4. Tobacco Destroy Trees
The human lungs are often compared to trees because they generally perform the same basic functions of the human lungs, only that they release oxygen instead of inhaling it. Trees are already absorbing most of the pollutants coming from humans so it would be a big shame on them really if people would add more toxins from their tobacco smoke.
5. It pollutes the water.
In California, half of the garbage collected every year is consists of cigarette butts. Take note, these only refer to those that were picked up. Imagine how much more are left on the ground. Some of these wastes are flown into the rivers, lakes, and seas. By mistake, the cigarette butts are eaten by animals and fish and die from them.
It takes an average of 25 years for cigarette buttes to decompose. All the while, the chemical compounds contained in them continue to pollute the ground.
Perhaps, the cruelest effects of smoking to the environment are seen whenever they are manufactured. Aside from the tons of pesticides applied on the tens of thousand acres of plantations, tobacco manufacturers also destroy trees every day. In an hour, they consume 4 miles of paper. Just 300 sticks of cigarette necessitate cutting one full grown tree!
Tobacco manufacturers are not very willing to apply new production technologies that will reduce the negative effects of smoking to the environment because they don’t want to lose millions of dollars from the billions of profit they get each year.
You have enough of the troubles and worries, why care for the environment? Few people understand the importance of preserving Mother Nature. But in totality, our life rests on her. Without here, we won’t live, so does our children.
