If you needed yet another reason to quit smoking, here it is.
Some exec at RJ Reynolds in the 40’s
“The damn government is making us take asbestos out of the filters. What can we put instead?”
“I know, how bout some space aged plastic!”
Aren’t microplastics from car tires more common?
I thought so too, and maybe they are using a different metric in this article, but I couldn’t tell you since their source URL is a deadline…
I also remember Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle being claimed as the highest plastic polluters as well.
Dislike smoking but realize that for addicts often public infrastructure doesn’t give you a lot of options for getting rid of butts. Seems like biodegradable butts should be mandatory. On the other hand I will lean into my horn if I see someone throwing butts out of their car. That is inexcusable - get an ashtray for your vehicle.
I mean, who cares? It’s the smokers’ problem? If you can’t dispose of your trash take it with you or stop producing it until you can. That’s true for any trash.
We expect people to carry doggie bags, too. Just clean up after yourself.
I realize that’s idealistic and it’s never going to happen because smokers be littering, but it makes me mad regardless.
doggy bags to take my food to go, or doggie bags to take the poo to go?
I just get all the tobacco out of the butt and put it in my back pocket until I find a trash can. It makes me stink even worse but that’s better than littering.
I do the same thing, but if you thought we stunk before that…man.
Nah I know how bad we stink. I’ve quit twice, long enough for it to become overwhelming again. I can’t smell it but I know it’s there.
I can’t smell it either at this point. I don’t smoke inside though.
I’ll never forget this one.
My ex and I were both chain smokers. I didn’t want to smoke inside but she was convinced a fan in the window was enough. I never smelled it before, but her mom bitched every time she came over.
When we split, I went back trying to work it out multiple times and I couldn’t stand the smell of her clean clothes even. It was awful. Even as a smoker I couldn’t stand the smell of that place. I remember falling asleep with her on the couch and just gagging.
I would NEVER smoke inside after smelling that. I also keep a cat litter container outside for butts and a Gatorade bottle with a little water in my car.
I threw cigarette butts everywhere when I was younger, then one day I seen a program about the butts ending up in waterways and I haven’t tossed one since.
Yeah I tossed and stomped, or flicked out the car window, when I was young. Smoked inside at my first three apartments and at my mom’s house.
I was callous in so many ways in my youth. Littering cigarettes ain’t nothing compared to how I acted in general. I try to keep it in mind and not judge the youth of today harshly.
Good onya for picking up after yourself & self awareness.
It was super hard for me to quit too (4 or 5 times and years on NRT) but it gets easier slowly. For me it was very worth it but we all have our own journeys.
I live in the US and it’s becoming more and more unusual in many places to see people smoking. As a result, I see fewer discarded cigarette butts than ever. Still not zero, but getting there.
It’s one of those big cultural shifts that has gone on in my life slowly but steadily. I recall my school bus driver would smoke doing his rounds, people smoking almost everywhere, even grocery stores. My family had lots of smokers, 3 out of my 4 grandparents smoked, all paid the piper, the habit led to their demise. Vending machines selling cigarettes everywhere. I recall it first was restricted on airplanes, with smoking sections separated with curtains, then in restaurants. A lot of it was ineffective and mostly symbolic, but then the biggest change was when California banned almost all indoor smoking in businesses, other states followed suit over the next decade. That combined with all the legal problems the tobacco industry had in the 90s has really caused a dramatic shift.
I love smoking. I know it’s killing me. I realize it stinks to other people. I never smoke indoors. I try my best to be considerate of others and never throw my butts on the ground.
But it’s getting a bit ridiculous the demonizing of smokers in the US. If I walk to the edge of a business’s property where there is literally no one and smoke a cigarette, I shouldn’t be harassed by cops or security to cross the street, go several blocks away, or similar.
LE are just assholes. I vape now but have dreamed of just hand rolling cigs ahead of time. Biodegradable, smells better, tastes better
Agreed on first point.
But when you hand roll do you use those tubes with a filter? I doubt it since you said biodegradable. The only times I hand rolled were when I was broke. A bag of Bugler with papers was like $2.50 back in the day. Roughly 50 cigarettes the way I rolled. But damn that shit killed my lungs. I’m sure a nicer brand would be better all around but no filter smokes fuck me up.
I never smoked hand rolls regularly; they didn’t feel bad in the moment but we were working with cardboard standoffs, not really much of a filter in that case. It’s probably for the best I’ve moved on from that
just light up a joint instead. it’s the greener alternative.
Absolutely, good for you. But if you smoke joints like I go through cigarettes you’re on Snoop’s level.
It’s the hardest thing about traveling to Europe for me. I love being in Europe, but after living in a part of the US with almost no smokers it is jarring to smell cigarette smoke everywhere on the streets there.
I get nostalgic whenever I smell cigarettes, which is very rare these days.
“hmm, the smell of cancer, addiction and poverty!”
I live in the U.S. too and I still see a ton here in Indiana, but we also apparently have a nicotine addiction epidemic here that no one talks about much.
As of 2022:
Nearly 29% of Indiana adults currently use tobacco. Combustible cigarettes are the most used tobacco product, followed by e-cigarettes.
I remember when I left Indiana 25 years ago that it was the highest per capita state for smoking, with Kentucky being number 2.
I’m in Western NY, but even in NYC it’s less than 9%. The state offers a lot of support for quitting, perhaps that’s why.
Aren’t cigarettes like $15 a pack there? That probably has something to do with it.
That’s exactly it. I’m a smoker from one of the states with the lowest taxes on cigarettes. I’m heading to New York in a couple of weeks and I’ll be stocking up before I leave. If I lived there I would quit, can’t justify spending that money. I’ve already switched to a cheaper brand that has deals at Sheetz that make them roughly $5 a pack.
I’ve never done this myself, but I’ve known a couple people that take a ton of cigarettes with them when they go to New York. This is highly profitable and highly illegal.
They’re $15 throughout the state. So they’re probably more in the city.
Reservation cigarettes negate those prices though.
Reservation cigarettes negate those prices though.
TIL that, on at least some Indian reservations in the United States, cigarettes are sold, sold at a lower price and sold to the general public. I could not find a reference on Wikipedia; all I found was a seemingly unofficial webpage.
You don’t have to go to the rez, or be a Native. We used to buy cartons at the Indian smoke shops in Tulsa. $1 pack in the 90s.
The reason they’re cheaper is because they don’t need to charge tax on them. Regular cigarettes are the same price, but they have all of the taxes on top of that, which makes them cost three times as much.
That’s interesting there isn’t anything on wiki about it. It’s not a secret or anything.
The reason they’re cheaper is because they don’t need to charge tax on them.
I understand. Thank you for confirming it.
I’ve heard people here in Europe sometimes save on cigarettes in a similar way, by buying them across the border, where taxes are lower, or in duty-free shops at airports, but that’s possibly outdated or even made-up hearsay I’ve never checked.
That’s interesting there isn’t anything on wiki about it. It’s not a secret or anything.
There may be something I missed, or it might be such an inconsequential and uncontroversial phenomenon that no one deemed it worth documenting.
I doubt there’s much support here at all and there was pretty much a red wave in this state in November, so there will probably be even less next year.
So what would you be your solution?
Why do I need a solution to recognize a problem? Or are you saying that many addicts is a good thing?
how harmful do you consider tobacco in the context of booze?
This post being about plastic waste caused by cigarettes, I’m not sure why you’re whatabouting alcohol.
It came up on the context of nicotine and how much people are addicted, yet i don’t see the uproar of the people who throw their empties into the river or on the road.
Is it a contest?
No, i dont think so, i just don’t think its fair to demonize smoking if we celebrate drinking. everyone has a vice.
When did I celebrate drinking? Both addictions are huge burdens on the healthcare system.
Both should be demonized.
Is it just being replaced by other equally bad habits? I just found out that disposable vape pens are a thing. Those have plastics and electronics inside. I have no idea what the numbers there are.
Although vaping has become really big, there’s a lot more people quitting smoking than there are picking up vaping.
And vaping is not equally bad by a long shot. Cigarettes are far worse for you. Also, vaping isn’t nearly as annoying for the people around the user. I say all this as a cigarette smoker myself.
Those disposable vapes are disgustingly wasteful. Apparently you can take them apart and make them reusable or repurpose the battery, but very few people are going to mess with that.
there’s a lot more people quitting smoking than there are picking up vaping
Sadly, in Australia, this isn’t the case. We had very, very low smoking rates, and vaping has opened up the floodgates to new nicotine addicts, many, many of which never even tried cigarettes.
I’m pretty annoyed about it, to be honest.
Another generation who will reap the rewards of cancer, which will be a massive cost to society. Financially and emotionally.
I really hope we can stem the tide.
I can’t claim to know the future, or more than doctors have described, but it really does seem that vaping is much better for your health compared to cigarettes.
You can feel it. Once you get used to vaping it doesn’t hurt at all. Meanwhile, after smoking for essentially my entire adult life, if I smoke too many I’ll feel it hard the next day.
Nicotine itself is not cancerogen! The stuff that gives you the big C are the combustion byproducts, and vaping does not combust anything. The main ingredients of the used liquid are vegetable glycerin, which is harmless, and propylengycole, which is also quite harmless. The only thing where there isn’t enough information yet are the used aromas, which are the same as the stuff that gets added to our food; there is not much data regarding inhalation of those.
Sure, it would be far better if they didn’t vape (especially if they didn’t smoke before - i am using it instead of tobacco as harm reduction), but at least you can relax regarding the size of the health impact.
Weed is more or less legal and available everywhere in the US.
That’s not at all true.
Legal everywhere, no. Available everywhere, yes.
I never see people smoking in the Puget Sound area. I saw people smoking all over NYC when I was there.
If you know people at the right bodega you can get them much cheaper because they’re illegally imported from the south. Additionally, if someone is working in NYC they probably make better money than people in most other places, so $15 to them isn’t the same as $15 to me.
I was in the city a few years ago and my (latino in appearance) co-worker told me about a shop where he got some cheap packs. I (white in appearance) went to the shop about an hour later and was sold New York cigarettes at a ball-busting price. That’s just the reality some places.
If you’re curious, you can look at the bottom of the cellophane to find the tax stamp, which will tell you the state they were taxed for sale in
Nice. NYC tobacco tax is outrageous, so is Washington State.
I thought tires were responsible for like 25% of micro plastics.
Never mind. I just read what I wrote, and realized they’re two different things.
I also had the idea that fishing nets were the most common sea plastic.
Just ban the filter. Let them smoke raw and unfiltered.
We should go back to using natural materials for filters, like asbestos. /s
Pretty typical response these days. “jUsT BaN iT!”
deleted by creator
Smoking with a filter has no health benefits. Statistically, there are even more illnesses with people that smoke with filter cause they on average smoke more cause it irritates the throat less.
Our local cancer NGO even lobbied to ban filtered sigarettes as they cause more smoking and are plastic litter.
Light cigarettes are even worse. Less harsh than regular filtered, light cigarettes have little holes on the paper around the filter that dilute the smoke with more air, but people end up inhaling harder to get the same dose of nicotine they would get with a regular cigarette, and the smoke ends up going deeper in the lungs.
If we were serious about getting people to quit, it would be better to force producers to slowly decrease the nicotine content, and the other addictive additives used in cigarettes. Of course the producers lobby and sue governments trying to limit them in any way.
At least for me, I’m much more addicted to the ritual and the motions of smoking than I am the nicotine. I’m sure this isn’t true for everybody. I know this because the first time I quit by vaping, I started with high nicotine juice and pretty quickly went down to 0% nicotine. Stopping the act of vaping was almost as hard as stopping cigarettes.
Or, and hear me out here, since no one would die from withdrawal and the product has no medicinal benefits and directly causes adverse health outcomes with no redeeming qualities: stop production completely.
I spent over 20 years enslaved to nicotine. Now that I’m free, I don’t want to see anyone else have to go through it.
deleted by creator
Any smoker already knows they’re killing themselves. Now it turns out their “filters” are harming us. I can’t even use a plastic straw anymore for fuck’s sake. Why not get rid of the filter?
deleted by creator
I doubt that filters provide any real harm reduction beyond trapping a little bit of tar, quick internet search will confirm. They seem to do more harm than good when you consider their environmental impact. From my pov, keeping them around is needlessly cruel and results in no benefit whatsoever
deleted by creator
Bro don’t cherry pick when quoting me, wth. They absolutely harm the environment more than help. Again smokers know the risk when they started smoking. They don’t get to mitigate that risk by poisoning the environment with their trapped tar filters that they flick everywhere with out a care for themselves or nonsmokers or the environment.
You’re wrong on this one
deleted by creator
Being very cynical, how does killing them faster not lessen the burden on society at large? It’s a burden I’m glad we choose to bear, but just literally mathematically, the amount spent worldwide on treating people with smoking damage is astronomical.
Statistically, it’s at least possible that the amount of cost saved by killing some smokers faster could be offset by causing other smokers to need medical treatment who would otherwise have avoided it.
deleted by creator
That we know of, I bet microplastics is actually worse but we can’t measure it in aggregate well.
And as the article already says what’s even worse is the cocktail of chemicals in those filters which are even more harmful than simple PET and the like.
I wasn’t aware cigarettes contained any plastic at all
The filters are basically all plastic except the paper around them.
Not a smoker, but I believe smokers are treated poorly, as are businesses that cater to smokers.
But my beliefs are really put to the test everytime I see a smoker throw their butt on the ground.
Not treated poorly enough.
Why should any human being be treated poorly?
For being disrespectful to the people around them.
You shouldn’t paint with such a broad brush. There are plenty of considerate smokers who try not to smoke around others and never litter our butts. Just like with so many other things, the people who are highly visible assholes give others a bad name.
That’s fair.
I agree it’s disrespectful. I have often picked butts up and handed them back.
For people in motor vehicles, I tend to pick them up and tuck the butt under their windshield wiper. This is relatively easy if I’m on my motorcycle stopped at a traffic light.
