Researcher recommends high officials move to ban cigarette filters

May 7, 2014 12:40 GMT  ·  By

Cigarette butts do not make headlines all that often, at least not when it comes to news having to do with environmental protection and safeguarding whatever natural ecosystems our good old planet still accommodates for.

As it turns out, they probably should. This is because, according to researcher Thomas Novotny with the San Diego State University in the US, trillions of cigarettes, be they smoked or intact, are improperly disposed of annually.

Thus, the researcher says that, presently, about 4.5 trillion of the 6 trillion cigarettes that people buy on a yearly basis end up not in dustbins or ashtrays, but on roadsides or pavements.

In fact, it is estimated that, in the United States alone, the overall weight of filters that people dispose of annually amounts to an impressive 49.8 million kilograms (nearly 110 million pounds).

When one also takes into account packaging and matches, it need not surprise anybody that some greenheads are very much concerned about the tobacco industry's impact on natural ecosystems and the wildlife that they house.

In a paper in Springer's journal Current Environmental Health Reports, Thomas Novotby details that, more often than not, tobacco waste products such as cigarette butts contain the very same harmful chemical compounds found in cigarettes and cigars.

Specifically, they contain toxins, nicotine, pesticides and carcinogens. Consequently, they need be regarded as a source of pollution and a potential threat to both public health and wildlife, the San Diego State University specialist stresses.

More so given the fact that, according to recent studies, certain cigarette filters such as plastic ones can linger on in the natural world for up to a decade and continue releasing dangerous compounds during all this time.

“Tobacco waste products are ubiquitous, environmentally hazardous and a significant community nuisance,” Thomas Novotny sums up the dangers that cigarette butts and other tobacco waste products represent.

“With two-thirds of all smoked cigarettes, numbering in the trillions globally, being discarded into the environment each year, it is critical to consider the potential toxicity and remediation of these waste products,” he adds.

The researcher recommends that high officials move to protect both public health and the environment by banning the use of cigarette filters. He says that such a ban will not affect smokers, simply because, as shown by recent studies, filtered cigarettes are neither healthier nor safer than non-filtered ones.

Other options to sort out this problem would be to inform people about how just one cigarette but can affect the environment, and forcing manufacturers to roll out cleanup activities, Thomas Novotny says.