Scientists call for a ban on filtered cigarettes

Scientists call for a ban on filtered cigarettes

The trillions of cigarette butts we find everywhere are highly toxic waste. Scientists are calling for a ban on selling filtered cigarettes.

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Cigarettes harm not only health, but also the environment. The trillions of butts that we find everywhere they are hazardous and highly toxic waste. Scientists are now demanding that we stop selling filtered cigarettes.




The growing awareness of the damage done to the planet through the disposal of large quantities of plastic has created public outrage and forced governments to act. While the European Union, for example, on the one hand will ban many single-use plastic products, such as cutlery, plates and straws from 2021, the totality of these measures does not extend to one of the main sources of plastic waste worldwide. that we have every day in plain sight: the cigarette butt. Although, among the new rules on plastics, there is a rule that would like to force tobacco companies to finance the cleaning of cigarette butts.

Smokers endanger their health and this is nothing new. But blondes are no less harmful to the environment: in discarded butts lie myriads of toxins that pose a threat to entire ecosystems.

Most cigarette butts consist of a non-biodegradable plastic filter made in cellulose acetate. So it takes decades for it to decompose. And here's the damage.

The false myth of filters

Filters were created in the 50s with the false idea of ​​"defending" against lung cancer because they are "capable" of filtering the harmful substances present inside the cigarette (which contains about 250 types of chemicals, of which at least 69 are recognized as carcinogenic). But when the manufacturers understood that those substances they were trying to filter, above all nicotine e tar, were those that in fact made the cigarette enjoyable, they made the filters less effective.

Ergo, these filters now only block certain types of toxins, letting others through. As a result, one type of lung cancer shrank, but another, adenocarcinoma, increased.


More, butts pollute! They do not decompose for decades, and according to one study, they are extremely toxic to fish as well.

The ban on filters to protect the environment

According to estimates by the World Health Organization, approximately 5,6 trillion cigarettes are smoked around the world every year. It is estimated that 4,5 trillion does not end up in the ashtray or the garbage can, but thrown away carelessly. Cigarettes endanger the environment with the toxins they contain, as do the filters: consisting mainly of plastic cellulose acetate, they are responsible for an immense amount of dangerous toxic waste.

Cigarette butts represent dal 30 to 40% of the waste found in the city and on the beaches, even before plastic bags, bottles or straws, and 2 to 6 milligrams of nicotine are released into the environment for each cigarette butt. But cigarettes, as we now know, contain not only nicotine, but also arsenic and heavy metals such as copper, lead and cadmium, as well as countless other chemicals. Many of the ingredients are carcinogenic, and most importantly, many toxic ingredients are in the filters.

And not only that, with the rain the toxins are discharged into the soil and the sea and enter the food chain.
Scientists are now calling for a study to completely ban the sale of filter cigarettes by arguing that "filters are a fiction", as the tobacco industry has been trying to convince consumers for decades that, thanks to filters , smoking is less harmful.

"We now know this safety discussion was a blast - one of many that the tobacco industry invented to sell cigarettes," said lead author Thomas Novotny. Cigarette filters are not only barely able to reduce the amount of pollutants absorbed, they also represent a serious environmental problem, so the health risks of smoking must be directly linked to the destruction of the environment. "


In short, to reduce plastic pollution filter cigarettes should also be banned. In their article, the scientists refer to the EU-wide ban on disposable plastics. "The exclusion of filters from the plastics directive seems to be a missed opportunity", they criticize.

Well, in the meantime, let's remember that nature is not an ashtray and that cigarette butts belong to residual waste and should not be thrown on the ground!

Read also:

  • Cigarette butts in first place among ocean litter, pollute more than plastic
  • No smoking on the beach: all the places where you can not smoke this summer
  • No smoke in the Milanese parks: the Municipality's ban is triggered
  • Smoking: soon stop to cigarettes even in the car, on the beach and in the parks

Germana Carillo

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