Indoor Smoking Ban: Smoke’s on the Environment?
Photo by Nick Dolding/Getty Images
No, say it ain’t so! Are indoor-smoking bans actually making things worse for the environment? That’s precisely what Florence Depondt says in E Magazine. After getting “pushed to the great outdoors,” she says, most smokers don’t bother taking the time to properly dispose of them in the trash. (As the witness of countless ciggie flickings onto the street, I can certainly attest to that.) And while the paper and tobacco components of cigarette butts are biodegradable, most cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, otherwise known as good ol’ nonbiodegradble plastic. Composed of 12,000 cellulose-acetate fibers, these filters can take between 18 months and 10 years to decompose.
But first, before we get ahead of ourselves, a little history of litter butts:
Cigarette litter has been a problem for as long as people have smoked, and especially since filtered cigarettes became popular in the mid-20th century following the discovery of a cause-effect relationship between smoking and cancer. Estimates from the World Health Organization suggest that close to 1.1 billion people—or one third of all people above the age of 15—smoke. When each of these smokers consumes an average of several cigarettes a day, one can only begin to picture the number of cigarette butts disposed of in streets, parks and other public places every single day. Discarded cigarettes have been reported—prior to any indoor smoking ban—to be as high as 4.5 trillion each year, according to Yahoo News in 1999, and it is estimated that cigarette butts account for 50 percent of all litter in the world.
(Emphasis is mine.)
Although new smoking bans have led to cleaner air, concerned citizens and business owners have noticed a “dramatic increase in cigarette litter,” especially outside bars and restaurants where smokers light up.
The problem with carelessly discarded butts is that they contain 4,000 chemicals, such as hydrogen, cyanide, and arsenic, which persist in the environment long after even the filters have decomposed. And because many cigarette butts are flushed down storm drains (by rain and other water runoff) long before a street cleaner gets to them, these butts soon find themselves winding their merry way into rivers and oceans, where they foul up the water and endanger aquatic life.
Toxological data has shown that chemicals from discarded cigarette butts are capable of leaching into surrounding waterways. One particular problem is that these leached chemicals are deadly to the water flea Daphnia magna, a small crustacean at the lower end of, but crucial to, the aquatic food chain.
The saddest environmental impact of cigarette butts is their role in the deaths of thousands of marine mammals and birds every year. These wild creatures mistake the butts for food. Once ingested, the butts can lead to starvation or malnutrition if they block the intestinal track, and can also prevent breathing by blocking vital air passages. In 2003, the United Nations International Maritime Organization reported that cigarette litter adversely affected 177 species of marine animals and 111 species of seabirds through ingestion.
(Emphases are mine.)
Obviously, smokers need to be educated, but how efficacious will this be when images of bald cancer patients breathing through a hole in their trachea haven’t deterred them? Depondt also refers to a piece in the 1999 issue of the Tobacco Control Journal, in which researchers called for additional taxes on tobacco products to go towards environmental campaigns and clean-up efforts. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the cigarette-litter fine. which Depondt says should be “visibly enforced and implemented as part of a comprehensive anti-cigarette litter campaign.” Heck, need enforcers? Sign me up! I’m Singaporean; I know how to work a fine.
As part of my own anti-smoking crusade out on the streets, I’ve taken to turning to the hub and saying, in a loud voice, “Hey, I heard that smoking makes your penis shrink.”
The hub took this a little bit further the other day, as two women puffed their lives away in front of us: “I heard that smoking MAKES YOUR BOOBS FALL OFF.”
And I fell in love with the man all over again.
Related articles:
1. Smoking Ban Without Borders
2. Read the Pre-nup Again
3. Dana Reeve, 1961-2006
melissa said,
January 30, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Maybe we should just outlaw the use of the toxic chemicals in the cigs. That way, they would safely decompose. But, b/c of the wild-creatures-eating-them issue - we should also impose fines for littering.
It’s so sickening how many seemingly insignificant addictions we have - from our use of *convenient* plastics, styrofoam, etc. to our nicotine habits - have such deadly effects on other creatures. E.g. sea creatures eating plastic. Why are we so ignorant and selfish?
Summer said,
January 30, 2007 at 7:43 pm
I totally feel for folks that are addicted nicotine, and wish em’ the best in kicking the habit. But nothing makes my blood boil more than those ciggie flickers, WW.
What about community service…a weekend of picking up cigarette butts may deter future litter bugs….
This Single Spark said,
January 30, 2007 at 7:45 pm
In happier news, since smoking bans have forced people outdoors, smoking rates have gone down and people who do smoke are smoking less. So fewer ciggies overall. My ex, who I do have a few nice things to say about, used to casually refer to smokers as “buttsuckers”. Sounded vaguely obscene and always made me giggle. I’ve continued using this unflattering phrase, but I may have to switch it up for your approach.
Jeff said,
January 31, 2007 at 12:05 am
The law allows (or at least doesn’t ban) the use of arsenic in the production of cigarettes. The mind boggles…
melanie said,
February 3, 2007 at 12:06 pm
In my city they have FINALLY banned smoking indoors (Jan 1st) which means I can go back to the pubs. However, I was just commenting last night about the amount of people I noticed smoking outside and flicking their butts on the ground! I’m happy that I can breath again indoors but maybe my city should also start enforcing the “no butts on the ground” policy that I believe they already have.
The Worsted Witch » Idling Gets You Nowhere said,
February 5, 2007 at 1:32 pm
[…] Another one of my (admittedly myriad) pet peeves: Idling cars, which spew just about as many pollutants as an ad-hoc convention of genitalia-impaired smokers does. I’d stick these flyers (provided by Natural Resources Canada) under people’s windshields if I could be somehow reassured that it wouldn’t just be a waste of paper. Right now, I’m the Queen of Dirty Looks. […]
The Worsted Witch » said,
June 11, 2007 at 10:06 am
[…] Millions of cigarettes pulled from waterways. See also: Indoor Smoking Ban: Smoke’s on the Environment? […]