As we all know, cigarettes are very harmful to our bodies, but did you know cigarettes can be harmful to the environment as well? If you don’t, then you better pay attention.
One cigarette contains over 4000 chemicals which are exhaled and released into the air and atmosphere. When users smoke, they release carbon, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and methane, which contributes to global warming. After they are finished with it, they usually just throw it to the ground, some which end up in rivers and lakes where fish and animals eat them by mistake and die. Others take from two to 15 years to breakdown, then another 10 years to decompose, allowing the chemicals to soak into the ground and pollute the soil and plants.
For every three hundred cigarettes produced, one tree is cut. From 1990 to 1995, 200 000 hectares of forest per year were destroyed to produce cigarettes, which caused erosion and flooding. To produce cigarettes,it takes a lot of energy and water usage, not to mention creating soil depletion and chemical waste. In Italy, they conducted an experiment that proved cigarettes produce 10 times the pollution of diesel car exhaust. Car results were measured 88 ug/m3 while cigarettes were recorded with 830 ug/m3 per 30 minutes. Although cigarettes are very harmful to the environment, the tobacco industry is unwilling to use better technology to reduce the impact since it takes billions of dollars per year.
| Contains nicotine, ammonia, methanol, carbon monoxide, arsenic, methane, acetic acid, butane, cadmium, stearic acid, hexamine and toluene. All are very harmful to the environment and body. |
In today’s manufacturers, they have designed an eco – friendly, electronic cigarette. It is a battery powered device that creates a smoke – like vapour on every puff you take. They are designed to vaporize a special liquid solution called “e-liquid”. E – liquid cartridges are sold with different strengths of nicotine and synthetic flavouring to imitate the traditional smoking experience. It offers smoking cigarettes without tobacco, tar, smoke and other chemicals found in traditional cigarettes. This way, it is less harmful to the body and the environment. Best of all, there are no cigarette buds to dispose since the cartridges are refillable. Hopefully, they can improve on the electronic cigarettes more, encouraging users to buy them instead of traditional cigarettes.
| The electronic cigarette. |
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