CLEAN AIR WAVES

          Editor - Corey Wakeley

September 6th                      Kennewick General Hospital Health and Swellness - Columbia Center Mall

Tobacco and the Environment

By Corey Wakeley - Marketing Director

Most people are aware of the health consequences of using tobacco, but  fewer  understand the toll tobacco has on the environment.

From the beginning, the growing of tobacco requires enormous amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. According to Health & Human Services of Berkeley California these harsh chemicals are often found as the cause of poisoning of farm workers, livestock and food crops because of the chemical seepage into the soil, waterways and ecological systems. It is these chemicals which are required to insure a healthy tobacco crop that inevitably end up costing tobacco farmers their own lives, the lives of their livestock or the water quality of the community in which they live.

After a tobacco crop is grown and harvested it must be dried and manufactured into a tobacco product. The amount of trees the tobacco companies and farmers burn to dry the tobacco and the amount of paper used in processing and package cigarettes is astounding. For every 300 cigarettes (about a two week supply for a pack a day smoker) one tree is cut down and for every hour a cigarette manufacturing machine runs, it uses four miles of paper. The tobacco industry uses 12% of all felled timber worldwide for manufacturing their product. The making of cigarettes, from start to finish, is extremely "forest dependant."

Cigarettes are often smoked, then carelessly thrown aside, tossed out car windows or left smoldering in ashtrays. Fires started  by smoldering cigarettes are the leading cause of fire deaths in America. In 2001, 31,200 fires were started nationwide by smoldering cigarettes causing $386 million dollars in property damage, serious injuries to thousands and ultimately 830 deaths, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Once the cigarette has been extinguished and left as a butt, it falls into a category all its own. According to the Surfrider Foundation, cigarette butts are the most littered item in the United states. During Coastal Cleanup Day in 2000, 230,000 cigarette butts where cleaned off of California beaches. The cigarette butts that do make it into the garbage are plaguing landfills with a chemical filled material which is not biodegradable. The filters of cigarettes are not made of cotton, as commonly thought, but are made of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic which takes up to 25 years to decompose.

Cigarette butts might be unsightly litter on our streets, sidewalks and beaches, but more importantly they pose a threat to our marine life and water quality. Littered cigarette butts are often washed down storm drains which filter into our rivers, streams and oceans. Once in contact with the water, the toxins which the cigarette filters are designed to trap, are released threatening the health of marine life and quality of water. Pieces of cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of seabirds, animals and fish, which have no way of digesting them, often costing their lives.

The lives of children are also at risk because of  tobacco. Nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco, is just one of the poisons found in tobacco. In 1995, The American Association of Poison Control reported 7,900 calls received involving toxic exposure to tobacco products by children under the age of 6 in the United States. Most of these children had swallowed cigarettes, cigarette butts or chewing tobacco they found in the garbage, on the sidewalk or lying around the house.

Tobacco Companies are fully aware of the environmental impact their product has, yet it is still the only product that is sold legally that comes with this guarantee... illness, death and a toll on the world we live.

Sources:

Health & Human Services, Berkeley, California

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Cigarette Litter

Surfrider Foundation

Center for Disease Control

For more information contact Corey Wakeley at corey@tobacco-free.net.

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