Big Tobacco is killing the planet with plastics. No smokescreen should be allowed to hide that.

[barbaraann]

Vinayak Prasad and Andy Rowell

The most common source of plastic pollution in our environment is not bottles, plastic bags or food wrappers, but cigarette butts. Smokers stub out nearly 800,000 metric tonnes of cigarettes every year, enough butts to cover New York’s Central Park. They are in every country on the planet, from city streets to rubbish tips, rivers and beaches.

Cigarettes contain single-use plastics because they are engineered and manufactured that way. Butts take a decade to degrade, releasing more than 7,000 toxic chemicals into the environment. Wildlife is also at risk: researchers found partly-digested cigarette butts in 70% of seabirds and 30% of sea turtles sampled for one study.
...
This could change. A UN plastics treaty is on the table, offering a global mechanism to tackle the lifecycle of plastics. Many authorities around the world – including India, Rwanda and the US state of California – have put in place or are considering policies to ban single-use plastics. These policies should include the plastic waste coming from tobacco and nicotine products, including electronic products.

Governments should also require the tobacco industry to clean up the waste that results from its products and pay for the environmental damage. And they can implement the WHO treaty, which has provisions to help governments protect themselves from being the targets of industry-sponsored PR campaigns.
...
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/26/big-tobacco-is-killing-the-planet-with-plastics-no-smokescreen-should-hide-that-acc

I had no earthly idea there was plastic in cigarettes, but I'm still planning on smoking again when I get to be 100.

[rurallib]

1. I would guess that plastic is the filter on filter cigs

[barbaraann]

2. Yes. Here is some more horrifying info.

Facts about Cigarette Butts and Smoke
In addition to the harms of using tobacco, cigarette waste creates a hazard and expense. Know these facts:

Most cigarette filters, the part that looks like white cotton, are actually made of plastic fibers (cellulose acetate) which can take up to 10 years to decompose!
Toxic compounds in cigarette butts can include formaldehyde, nicotine, arsenic, lead, copper, chromium, cadmium, and a variety of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
​Butt waste is everywhere: 99% of the 360 billion cigarettes sold have cellulose acetate (plastic) filters; at least one-third of those – 120 billion – are discarded into the environment. Washed into rivers, lakes and the ocean, and eaten by birds, animals and fish, they are the most littered item in the U.S. and the world.
Butt waste is not biodegradable: Filters are non-biodegradable, and while ultraviolet rays from the sun will eventually break them into smaller pieces, the toxic material never disappears.
Smoking-related debris is 1/3 or more of all debris items found on U.S. beaches and in rivers and streams.
Cigarette butts leach organic chemicals and heavy metals into the environment that are toxic to fresh and salt-water fish.
Cigarette butts make up 34 percent of the total litter collected in California.
Cigarette waste is a significant contributor to storm drain trash.
Discarded cigarette butts have been linked to wildfires, which result in the destruction of wildlife, vegetation and structures.
California public agencies spend in excess of $41 million annually on litter clean up.
https://uhs.berkeley.edu/tobaccofacts

[genxlib]

3. My secret dangerous wish in life

Is to walk up to a smoker's car after he has flicked a lit cigarette butt out of his window. I am just itching to flick it back into his car and say, "sorry, it looks like you dropped something"

I am convinced that nicotine turns off the social responsibility part of the brain. It is shocking to me how rude and inconsiderate so many smokers can be.

The closest I ever came to getting into a public fight was over a cigarette butt. I was in a foul mood and walking out of a store. The guy walking in was within five feet of a butt disposal can and yet he flicked it to the sidewalk at my feet. I lit him up and he meekly picked it up and disposed of it properly. Lucky I wasn't shot but I just wasn't going to put up with shit on that particular day.

If it isn't clear, this is kind of a pet peeve of mine.

[barbaraann]

4. My dad flicked butts like he was the king of the world, a Fifties man.

He also started a fire with a dropped lit cigarette that burned up the family home with everything in it ( thankfully he and mom escaped). Did that stop him from smoking? Nope, only death stopped it.
For the record, I only smoked for six or so years, but the addiction lingered for many more.

[genxlib]

5. I should add

This kind of thing is also responsible for the single most disillusioning volunteer service I have had.

I once spent three hours on a beach clean-up service. After all was said and done, ninety percent of my litter was cigarette butts.

I just came away angry at a sub-set of humanity rather than actually feeling good about the service.

[barbaraann]

6. Most (approx. 90%) smokers start when they are teenagers.

The cigarette companies know this and do all sorts of things to get teens to smoke. I knew a convenience store owner once who told me that the cig companies would give him displays to put at the front of the counter so that kids would STEAL them. It doesn't take much to get someone addicted to nicotine.

Perhaps smokers themselves are the worst victims of the habit. Lung cancer is a hellish way to die.