I can’t speak to the addiction that I know smokers have, except that it’s an expensive one (financially and physiologically). I’ve never smoked in my life, except for all that second hand smoke I’ve inhaled over the years because friends smoked. I’ve never understood the appeal of sucking horrible chemicals into one’s lungs and then sharing them with others as one exhales. I went out with a smoker or two when I was younger…yuck, hated that. They always had this stale smell about them, very unattractive. But whatever, I didn’t break up with anyone over cigarettes, I didn’t abandon friends because they have self-lethal tendencies. The bottom line is that we all make choices, if smokers choose to pollute themselves in such a blatant and unhealthy manner, well, that’s their choice I suppose…but don’t drag the rest of us down with you..OK?
So I admit that I cheered out loud when the public space smoking ban came into effect in Canada. How fantastic to not wake up in the morning and smell my clothes reeking of stale cigarette smoke across the room. How nice to come home from the pub with my hair still smelling like hair. How fantastic to not have to ingest second hand smoke with my salad while I am eating out! A new day! And now the newer restrictions that patios are included in the restrictions! Fantastic! I can eat outside in the summer and smell flowers instead of toxic smoke!
It took long enough, but I am grateful that society is cracking down and recognizing that unhealthy habits should not put the rest of the population out or at risk. Sorry smokers, but I’m truly hoping your habit’s end is drawing near. Smoking takes a toll on everyone’s health and well-being.
Particularly in light of this new tidbit of information.
I’ve ranted about plastic bottles, I’ve complained about plastic bags. I hate litter. When in Greece, plastic bags almost cost us our trip by fouling our prop. While in Brazil I realized that water bottles comprise more garbage than anything else. But did I ever think about cigarettes? Well, every time I see someone flick a butt…I think, “Use an ashtray idiot”. It infuriates me when I see cigarette butts flicked out a car window. Drivers will smoke in their car, but they won’t even use their own ashtray? Nature is their ashtray. Nice! I don’t really get it since I am sure most of these people wouldn’t throw a plastic bottle or a garbage bag on the street….but they flick their butts everywhere. Why? They probably perceive it as “just one little butt”. “It’s small, what difference can it make?” A BIG difference! I imagine that people who flick a butt on the street don’t think it will somehow migrate to the ocean…but they do…. a rainshower washes things to the gutter and down the storm drain…and then these little rejected bits of trash collect and flow out into the aquatic environment where they release their toxic payload. Cigarette butts have been found in stomachs of birds, whales and other marine creatures.
During annual coastal cleanups, litter and debris is collected and catalogued and the results are shocking. Yes, plastic bags and empty plastic bottles are a huge problem….but the surprise was the relative contribution of the little cigarette butt…it’s not so little. Internationally, cigarette butts outnumbered plastic as the most abundant litter item found on the beaches of the world. The top 12 items of debris found were, in order, cigarette butts, plastic pieces, plastic food bags/wrappers, foamed plastic pieces, glass pieces, plastic caps/lids, paper pieces, plastic beverage bottles, metal beverage cans, plastic straws, glass beverage bottles and metal bottle caps.
Cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate (inhaled fibres of which are considered to be one of the major contributors to lung cancer) which, although marketed as biodegradable, can be extremely resistant to degradation, requiring as long as15 years to decompose into microscopic plastic bits that then re-enter our food chain and are ingested by every living thing (See Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic….Are We?) It is estimated that there are something like 1.2 billion smokers…if each of them flicked two butts a day that is 2.4 billion butts not being disposed of correctly…per day. That would amount to 876 billion butts per year entering the waterways from just two flicks per day. The more realistic estimate is that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts become litter every year (Chicago Tribune). So is the flick of a butt the end of the world….maybe it actually could be….
That stinks!