Be a part of the solution...prevent cigarette butt pollution!
- According to the California Department of Public Health, they found that in 2005, approximately 135 million pounds of cigarette butts were dumped into the U.S. environment. “Cigarette butts are the most common toxic waste found in cleanups and the number one item found on California highways.”
- Each cigarette is a blend of over 4,000 chemicals. When a person exhales cigarette smoke, they release these 4,000 different chemicals into the air. This means there is a massive amount of pollution released into the air everyday. According to a 2004 study in Italy, a researcher named Giovanni Invernizzi, who is from the Tobacco Control Unit of Italy's National Cancer Institute in Milan, “found that air pollution that comes from cigarettes is 10 times greater than diesel car exhaust.”
- The tobacco plant, use to make cigarettes, is a very delicate plant. As a result, and according to Action on Smoking and Health (http://ash.org/), the tobacco plant is prone to lots of diseases and insects. Because of this, the plants are often sprayed with chemicals and pesticides including DDT, Aldrin, and Methyl bromide, which are awful for the ozone layer. These chemicals can get into water supplies.
- The production of cigarettes is very damaging to the environment. It is also responsible for depleting our forests. The manufacture of cigarettes uses about 600 million trees a year. It is estimated that one tree is consumed for every 300 cigarettes produced. The reason being is that the leaves of the tobacco plant need to be dried or cured (aged) before they can be used in making cigarettes. The fastest way to age tobacco is to use fire or circulated heat. When curing by fire or circulated heat, the green leaf must be kept at high temperatures for about one week. To accomplish this, wood is often used in the curing process. Therefore, large areas of forest are cut down. 5.6 trillion cigarettes are produced annually worldwide. That means that tobacco demolishes about 18.6 billion trees every year.