Dear smokers.

Okay, I know vaping has been in the news a lot and for good reason, and it's causing a new lung disease.

But today I want to address cigarette smokers about something specific.

That kind of drives me insane.

And it's this now I'm not just here to rip on smokers, but I do want to talk about your cigarette butts and what happens when you throw them on the ground like there isn't any consequence, because I see them literally everywhere.

It turns out that 75% of cigarettes are discarded on the ground as opposed to being disposed of properly, which means that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are being thrown on the ground every year.

Honestly, I can't even comprehend a trillion sometimes.

But it would take you 31,000 years to count to a trillion if every single number took you one second to say.

But put another way, it's 142,000 cigarette butts on the ground every second, which makes cigarettes the single most common form of letter on the planet.

Now, before we even get into the science If you live in a major city, there's usually receptacles for this everywhere, like this one back here, you can dispose your cigarette, but for some reason, almost half the smokers I know didn't even realize this.

And ironically, you can usually find cigarette butts within a few feet if not right under them.

So why are we even okay with this?

I mean, if we saw people throwing garbage on the ground, we probably be like, That's bad, but for some reason, cigarette butts get a pass now, you might be saying, but it's harmless, isn't it?

Biodegradable and good for the environment?

No, cigarette butts aren't biodegradable.

They're made of plasticized cellulose acetate, which doesn't mean that they'll stay hold forever.

The sun and the elements will break them down, probably over the course of about a decade, which just means that they end up in the soil or getting washed up in water and contributing to water pollution.

Oh, and by the way, cigarette filters don't actually do anything.

They were created as a marketing ploy to make people feel like they were protecting themselves.

When studies actually show that they do not make smoking any healthier In fact, cancer rates have increased since they began using them.

But use cigarettes aren't just wasted plastics.

They contain carcinogens like nicotine and other toxins like arsenic is not only has a severe impact on plant and vegetation growth, but one study found that a single cigarette butt soaked in water was enough to kill half of the fish exposed in that tank.

One single cigarette butt.

And if you won't do it for the environment or for fish, consider doing it for kids or good boys like this who are constantly putting stuff in their mouths, including cigarette butts.

Cigarettes are also responsible for around 90,000 fires every year, making them the number one cause for fire related deaths.

But it doesn't stop in your home.

Around 90% of forest fires are also caused by humans, of which some of that comes from negligent cigarette disposed.

However, I don't want to place all the blame on smokers because the truth is that the cigarette industry has fought really hard to not be held responsible for the amount of waste and cost it takes to clean up.

And while many other industries have been assigned extended producer responsibility, which means that they have to deal with the mess that their products create.

A cigarette industry has avoided this at all costs.

And what's worse, as places continue to ban smoking from indoors, a study in Britain actually found a 43% increase in cigarette littering.

So look, smoking is your own choice, but it's not the environments, so just dig a person and take responsibility.

Obviously, Guerette butts like you would with other trash, and if there's nowhere to put it right now, just hold onto it until you can dispose of it properly.

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Frias.

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