Harmful Effects of Traditional Cigarettes to the Environment

Smoking has always been harmful to the health of both passive and active smokers. Millions of people are losing their lives annually. Smoking related diseases are never easy to treat and most people end up succumbing to them. Apart from being harmful to us, the environment is never safe as well. This article is going to focus on the scary details about how cigarettes can seriously damage the environment.

Air pollution comes in first on the list of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. Almost everybody even the smokers themselves know about this fact. You should keep in mind that it is not only through smoking that the air is polluted. The air produced during the curing process of tobacco also leads to air pollution. Cigarette smoke in itself contains over six thousand different chemicals. With that said, you can only imagine how dangerous it is. Thanks to cigarette smoking, we have global warming. In a nut shell, cigarette smoking is the worst enemy of the air we breathe.

Apart from air pollution, cigarette smoking also causes fire outbreaks both at homes and forests. When such cases occur, not only people lose their lives and millions worth of property but also animals and vegetation suffer.

Cigarette butts also pollute our precious oceans. The toxins that come with the butts are not safe for aquatic life. There was once a study conducted that reported that cigarette has the ability to kill half the fish in the ocean. With the billions of traditional cigarettes that people smoke on a yearly basis, you can only imagine the effect it will have on the innocent aquatic life.

Cigarette smoking is also harmful to our lands. Do you have an idea that cigarette butts are by far the number one items discarded as trash all over the world ? The fact that they are non-biodegradable makes it even worse. As earlier mentioned, the toxins in cigarette butts are not safe for both humans and the environment in general.

Our natural soil is also harmed by traditional cigarette smoking. This is because it leaches the soil of natural occurring nutrients and minerals responsible for plant growth. Without the natural nutrients and minerals, plants are not able to survive. At the end of the day, this will be harmful to the native environment, flora and fauna. In a nut shell, with the increase in tobacco smoking, the would will no longer be a safe place for both plants and animals.

In conclusion, in order to avoid the harmful effects of cigarette smoking, people should come up with ways of quenching their urge to smoke or quit smoking all the same.