Economic and Environmental Impacts of Cigarettes
We have all heard the presentation in elementary school and seen the warning labels on a cigarette package or filter, so the impacts on humans is fairly evident; Cardiovascular problems; COPD; stroke; cancer; emphysema. However, the impacts is far greater even to us. Nicotine, cotinine, and other toxic chemicals has been found in our soil, dust, water (bottled and tap), plants, commodity crops and has been found to bio-accumulate within other mammals and wildlife.
Nicotine, tobaccos-specific nitrosamines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals, and metalloids are just some of the chemicals found in cigarette butt waste.
Only ~20% of the nicotine is absorbed by the smoker, the rest is found in the filter or is burned through combustion. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found in second hand smoke and the smoke directly inhaled. These chemicals attach to surfaces and can take decades to disappear. Tobacco-specific nitrosamines forms what is referred to as third hand smoke. This is the pollutants found on surfaces and in dust after someone has been smoking in an enclosed space. The metal and metalloids is a source of metal pollution and leaches into other environments.
The two main sources of contamination of cigarettes is the cigarette butt itself and the combustion. Cigarette butts are the second most littered item in the world and are responsible for micro-plastic waste and end up in water ways, soils, and food. Combustion exposure of cigarettes can include inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact.
E-cigarettes bring a new source of pollution. Electronic waste is very toxic to the environment and the pods included in the cigarette contain high concentrations of nicotine and, along with combustibles, contributes nicotine, metal, and PAH pollution.
But disposal and use are one of the least impacting stages of a cigarettes life cycle. The farming, curing, and manufacturing processes have the largest effects including but not limited to, acidification, eutrophication, toxicity, water depletion, fossil and metal depletion.
Microorganisms including prokaryotes, eukaryotes, symbioses, and viruses, which react to ambient chemicals in marine and freshwaters, soils and sediments, and waste treatment systems. Although there are metabolic pathways for nicotine established at the microorganism level, they're only functional if the amount of nicotine falls within acceptable ranges. Contaminants from cigarettes can inhibit biodegrading microorganisms in various aquatic microbial populations and can impact the ability to biodegrade nicotine and cellulose acetate.
In plant life, wheat and duckweed have seen an increase in biomass when exposed to nicotine, supporting natural pathways for degradation. However, nicotine levels are monitored and can impact farmers and distributors economically as well as food security. Unfortunately this means that nicotine, cotinine and other chemicals are found regularly found in our food supply, even if at regulated amounts. Second hand smoke effects plants found near designated smoking areas and perennials have seen short shoots and impacted germination processes.
In non-mammalian animals there have been studies that show the in freshwater and saltwater animals there are fatal impacts of cigarette waste (50% death rate for ~1 cigarette butt per 1L of water) and scientists have seen accumulation in animals such as mussels that are lethal if consumed by either humans or wildlife.
Mammals, including humans, there are studies that show that there is a risk of acute toxicity, cell mutation, reproductive effects, and behaviour changes.
Some articles mention how the product can be changed to positively change the impacts of cigarettes but the amount of negative impacts on the land use, aquatic and terrestrial environments, toxicity to wildlife and to humans, as well as the effects of the curing, processing, manufacturing, distribution, and of course, use and disposal, make me advocate for the complete removal of tobacco products. The economic impacts on our health care, cleanup and environmental counteracts is simply to high even is you ignore the quality of life decline, financial impacts of the individual, the health concerns for the surrounding family and pets, and so on.
I have worked for parks throughout BC for quite a while and I have personally billed the province tens of thousands of dollars over the course of 3 years in labour costs for litter pick up, with approximately 65% of my time spent on cigarette butts, and toilet paper, and honestly in this respect, I would love to make less money.
Sources:
Beutel, M. W., Harmon, T. C., Novotny, T. E., Mock, J., Gilmore, M. E., Hart, S. C., Traina, S., Duttagupta, S., Brooks, A., Jerde, C. L., Hoh, E., Van De Werfhorst, L. C., Butsic, V., Wartenberg, A. C., & Holden, P. A. (2021). A Review of Environmental Pollution from the Use and Disposal of Cigarettes and Electronic Cigarettes: Contaminants, Sources, and Impacts. Sustainability, 13(23), 12994. MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132312994
Novotny, T., Lum, K., Smith, E., Wang, V., & Barnes, R. (2009). Cigarettes Butts and the Case for an Environmental Policy on Hazardous Cigarette Waste. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 6(5), 1691–1705. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph6051691
Zafeiridou, M., Hopkinson, N. S., & Voulvoulis, N. (2018). Cigarette Smoking: An Assessment of Tobacco’s Global Environmental Footprint Across Its Entire Supply Chain. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(15), 8087–8094. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b01533