How Does Smoking Harm The Environment?

[pearltasty]

It is a common belief among cigarette smokers that they are only hurting themselves. In fact they are not only hurting themselves, but also the earth.

These days everyone knows what smoking cigarettes does to our bodies, but the knowledge of what smoking does to the Earth is.

It is fairly obvious that smoking pollutes the air and quite often the ground. However, it is not always obvious how or how much smoking pollutes. Cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals which are exhaled and released into the air and the atmosphere. Approximately 30% of North Americans are smokers, and the percentage goes much higher in developing countries, which means there is a massive amount of pollution being released into the air every day. Trees are often compared to the lungs in our bodies because they perform basically the same functions as our lungs do on a global scale. With all of the pollutants that the trees filter out for us already it seems almost crazy to add more to the air that doesn’t need to be added. We need to breathe, but no one needs to smoke. Not as common. People who love them and the environment.

The pollution caused by cigarettes does not stop in our bodies or the air; it also affects the land we live on and the water that we drink. Millions of cigarette butts are discarded onto the ground every day. Every year in California the state has a statewide cleanup and cigarette butts account for almost half of the waste that is collected. These are only the ones that are picked up in one state and millions more are never picked up. They end up in the rivers and lakes where fish and animals eat them by mistake and quite often die from it. The rest are left on the ground to decompose which will take an average of 25 years while all of the chemicals and additives leach into the ground and pollute the soil and the plants.It looks unattractive, it is a major fire hazard in dry weather, and it is extremely harmful to the environment.

Probably the most impacting aspect of cigarettes is actually producing them. There is the land used to grow the crops all over the world that could be put to better use by planting more trees or food for starving children in third world countries. These crops are also often sprayed with a lot of harmful pesticides and chemicals because tobacco is a very fragile plant and is likely to pick up disease. It also takes a lot of trees to produce and package cigarettes. Cigarette manufacturing uses four miles of paper an hour just for rolling and packaging cigarettes. One tree is wasted for every three hundred cigarettes produced. Those trees could be filtering out the pollutants already in the air instead of being chopped down for the cause of adding new ones. There is still the energy and water wasted in manufacturing cigarettes that needs to be considered and with soil depletion and chemical wastage added on top of that it becomes clear that manufacturing cigarettes has an enormous strain on the environment.

The tobacco industry is quite unwilling to use better technology to reduce the impact they are having on the environment because it would take up too much of their billions of dollars in profit every year. They are often trying to have more trees planted, but since they use trees to dry the tobacco and for rolling and packaging it is probably not concern for the environment, but concern for losing their wood sources that encourage them to do this. They do not care about polluting our bodies so it seems unlikely that they would think twice about polluting our environment.

The only way to stop them from harming the environment is to stop buying their products. Quitting smoking is hard, but it can be done and it’s not only about the harm smokers are doing to their own bodies, it’s also about the harm they are doing to the earth and the pain that they are causing their friends and families.

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"One thousand Americans stop smoking every day - by dying."

[mrbojangles]

I think I'd sooner suck on a cigarette than suck on a car exhaust pipe.

[mikecwm]

Several studies have shown that smokers are directly responsible for Global Warming, retreating glaciers, rising sea levels, acne in teenagers and bad breath in 25% of the population.

[fasteddie]

Several studies have shown that smokers are directly responsible for Global Warming, retreating glaciers, rising sea levels, acne in teenagers and bad breath in 25% of the population.

and several studies have found, that several studies that claim AGW, are based on false evidence, and in fact glaciers are not retreating in any way they haven't for millions of years, and sea levels are not rising or falling in any unnatural way!

[elitesuk]

Smoking effects the enviroment very badly. Cigratte smoke effects the people who actually are non-smokers but inhale this smoke when stand among and near a smoker. Smoke is effecting the Ozone layer of the atmosphere at a quite rate.

[pearltasty]

Thanks to all for agreeing with me.

[ravip]

Springtime means flowers, fresh air, babbling brooks, a blue sky and, all in all, a chance to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. But all of that beauty is at risk because of how cigarettes are damaging our environment. Researchers estimate that 1.7 billion pounds of cigarette butts accumulate in lakes and oceans and on beaches and the rest of the planet every year. Discarded cigarette butts and filters contain the same dangerous chemicals contained in a cigarette, including carcinogens and other poisons.

Click here for more...

[mommysboy]

I hope this is a wind up.

If not, how do you think the effects of smoking on the environment compare with exhaust fumes for example ?.

No doubt a non smoker who doesn't think twice about jumping in a car and spewing out more fumes in an hour than a smoker does in a lifetime.

[JSixpack]

Springtime means flowers, fresh air, babbling brooks, a blue sky and, all in all, a chance to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.

Whilst puffing on a fine cigar. )

[MAJIC]

Several studies have shown that smokers are directly responsible for Global Warming, retreating glaciers, rising sea levels, acne in teenagers and bad breath in 25% of the population.

and several studies have found, that several studies that claim AGW, are based on false evidence, and in fact glaciers are not retreating in any way they haven't for millions of years, and sea levels are not rising or falling in any unnatural way!

Agreed! But the Scientists Scaremongering the Population ensures,future years funding,and fat pay packets.

[MAJIC]

I hope this is a wind up.

If not, how do you think the effects of smoking on the environment compare with exhaust fumes for example ?.

No doubt a non smoker who doesn't think twice about jumping in a car and spewing out more fumes in an hour than a smoker does in a lifetime.

I hope this is a wind up.

If not, how do you think the effects of smoking on the environment compare with exhaust fumes for example ?.

No doubt a non smoker who doesn't think twice about jumping in a car and spewing out more fumes in an hour than a smoker does in a lifetime.

And please don't forget,there are hundreds of millions of cars and other vehicles on our roads,all of which are wearing their tyres out,and soon we will have mountains of Rubber Dust clogging up our Roads,Streams,Ponds,Parks,Drainage System,and what happened to all the lead,burnt off by cars,in the days of Leaded Fuel ..........

A wind up for sure!

Edited September 28, 2012 by MAJIC

[MAJIC]

Smoking effects the enviroment very badly. Cigratte smoke effects the people who actually are non-smokers but inhale this smoke when stand among and near a smoker. Smoke is effecting the Ozone layer of the atmosphere at a quite rate.

It used to be that CFC Sprays was effecting the Ozone Layer until they were banned,so it had to be something else to keep the Scientists and Ecologists money rolling in,with huge fact finding grants,taken from the captiveTax Payers.

[linuxuser010101]

There are much worse forms of pollution in the world, burning fields in Thailand, Laos and Burma for example and the argument for the land use for growing tobacco is flawed as long as we grow hops and barley for beer and grapes for wine and other things like that. Some countries count on tobacco production for income like The Dominican Republic, Honduras and Cuba. While I hope I never smoke another cigarette this argument is hype against tobacco, vegetarians and vegans could easily argue that meat production is a wast of good farm land (which it is) and we could grow a lot more food in fact what cattle alone eat could feed 8.7 billion people.

[transam]

OP, do you know what happens when a farmer ploughs a field regarding global warming. ?

Do a google then you will forget about fags.

Do you fly anywhere ? The amount of gas that is burnt for you. You can forget fags.

Did you ever have central heating or aircon at home ? You can forget about fags.

Do you drive a car and burn petrol or diesel ?. You can forget fags.