44332 smoking and environment

Smoking and Environment We all know about the effects of smoking on the health of smokers and the people they smoke around However, many people are unaware of the harmful effects of smoking on the environment So they must learn about it Smoking creates tremendous amounts of waste and pollution, making it terrible for the environment Cigarette smoke contains approximately 4,000 chemicals The air pollution that results from cigarette smoke is 10 times greater than that from car fumes Each year, the world throws approximately 4.3 trillion cigarette butts Many of these cigarettes are never collected, since cigarettes are the most polluting item in the world Cigarette butts are made out of a plastic called cellulose acetate which degrades very slowly in the environment It can take up to 10 years for a cigarette butt to decompose Once in contact with water, cigarettes leach toxic substances such as tar, cadmium, lead and arsenic as well as nicotine into the soil and water bodies This can harm any living organism that comes in contact with the toxins Cigarette butts often end up in the intestines of marine life since they can be mistaken for food Cigarettes also use a lot of paper In fact, 600 million trees are cut down per year to supply the cigarette industry Tobacco is also grown using a lot of pesticides, including dangerous toxins such as DDT and Aldrin, as well as Methyl Bromide, which depletes the ozone layer Clearly, the act of smoking and the waste it creates has a huge negative impact on the environment By quitting, you are not only making a healthy choice that will save you money, you will also be doing the Earth a huge favour Why does cigarette smoke pollute the air? _ How cigarettes pollute water? _ Does pollution caused by cigarettes affect food chains? How? _ Pick out a sentence from the text describing the following visuals  _