There’s a whole bunch of reasons to quit smoking. They include health benefits, a safer living environment for your family, money savings, and more respect among friends, colleagues, and society.
One reason is often overlooked. We often forget that cigarettes kill not only people. They harm our planet significantly. If you’re one of those people who understand how important the environment is to them and that it does affect them directly, show your care by quitting. If you’ve already done it with the help of vaping, you may be wondering how safe your new habit is for the place you live in.
Vaping saves the trees
To produce an electronic cigarette, no paper is necessary. It’s only used for the packaging. And there’re no numbers on how much trees are cut for this need. Anyway, it’s clear that the numbers are less than those associated with the smoking industry.
The very manufacture of tobacco products hurts the planet by deforestation. Statistics say that 540 million trees are cut down annually. One tree is wasted for every 300 cigarettes. It’s said that 4 miles of paper are used every hour to roll and pack cigarettes.
Aside from production, wood is used to cure the tobacco plants that are vulnerable to a variety of pests and diseases. Around 600 million trees are burned for this purpose each year.
Let’s put in another way. Depending on the number of cigarettes you smoke daily, you may be saving a tree every two weeks (if you’re a pack-a-day smoker) or every month (half of a pack) in case of dropping this bad habit.
Switching to vaping decreases the amount of litter
Unlike tobacco smokers who smoke cigarettes and then discard dirty filters, vapers reuse their vaping devices. An average electronic cigarette (Vapingdaily provides more info) can be used regularly for months. A tank works through hundreds of vaping sessions before it needs to be replaced. The latest innovative coil heads contribute to its longevity. A battery also lasts for at least 300 recharges.
Some manufacturers refused from cellophane wrapping and used more recyclable e-juice bottles made from aluminum and glass. If vape products are appropriately disposed and recycled, the impact on the environment is minimal.
Guess what the most common litter item in the world is? It’s a cigarette butt. Over 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded worldwide each year. It makes up to 30% of all litter. In San Francisco alone, $10.7 million is spent annually to clear streets from butts. Indeed, the damage is more serious than you can imagine. Just read the following information carefully.
● The effect on waterways and marine life
According to the Ocean Conservancy, over 3.2 million cigarettes and cigarette butts were collected in 2009 from beaches and inland waterways worldwide. Filters have the leftovers of noxious chemicals a smoker inhales with smoke, for example, arsenic, benzene, ammonia, lead, and formaldehyde. So, the butts are floating in oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and ponds, poisoning the water. To understand how worrying this problem is, here’s an interesting fact – one cigarette butt kills a fish in a 1-liter water container.
What is worse, fish and seabirds can mistakenly take cigarette butts for worms or insects and ingest them. Understandably, butts can’t be digested. So, poor animals feel saturated, stop eating and starve to death.
● The effect on air
When it comes to environmental emissions, e-cigs win. It has been proven that e vapor is much cleaner than tobacco smoke. Some studies detected the particles of heavy metals, carcinogens, and other toxic chemicals in vapor. But their amount is very small if compared to that present in tobacco smoke.
Smoking pollutes the air ten times greater than a diesel car engine left running for 30 minutes. A burning cigarette releases methane and carbon dioxide – two of the planet’s main greenhouse gases. It contributed to global warming. On average, smokers are responsible for up to 84,878 tons of air pollution annually.
In this regard, vaping is a better option. E-juice for an e-cig vaporizer is made of Vegetable glycerine (VG), Propylene glycol (PG), nicotine, and flavorings.
VG is a naturally-occurring chemical derived from plant oils. It’s of very low toxicity when ingested, inhaled, or in contact with skin. PG is also regarded as safe. It’s present in many food and pharmaceuticals.
An electronic cigar pollutes the air with nicotine. One study measured the levels of nicotine levels in bystanders around people who were vaporizing and smoking. The levels were similar.
Some researchers are concerned about the flavorings both in regular cigarettes and e-liquids. San Francisco and New York officials look to ban flavored tobacco and vaping products.
● The effects on soil
Contrary to common opinion, cigarettes don’t biodegrade. The filters are made of cellulose acetate, not cotton. It takes 8-12 years before a cigarette butt gets decayed. Billions of butts scattered all over on the ground break the balance of an ecosystem.
The harmful chemical ingredients that leak into the ground impose serious threats to trees, plants, and livestock. They affect the soil and stunt vegetation. Accidental consumption of a cigarette butt by a domestic animal can lead to sickness or even death.
Final thoughts
It’s vandalism to wantonly ruin or permit the ruin of nature, no matter what it is – plants, trees, waters, or animals. The tobacco industry destroys forests and reduces soil fertility. Smokers contribute to low air quality, filthy water, and ground. Cigarette butts exterminate fishes, mammals, and birds.
Fortunately, people are becoming more eco-conscious. We start to understand that litter, including electronic waste, is a huge global problem. If you’re a vaper, be responsible! It’s extremely important to dispose of all vape gear properly. Unsorted electronic waste contributes to pollution!
