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Environmental Effects of Cigarette Smoke

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals. As more people focus on potential threats to the environment, some have begun to wonder what the chemicals released by cigarettes are doing to the earth. Since smoking impacts a room's environment and secondhand smoke inhalation presents a danger in extremely localized areas, it might be worth considering whether smoking affects the planet.

  1. Ammonia

    • Ammonia, a naturally occurring chemical often found in household cleaning products, also is one of the many chemicals present in cigarette smoke. Ammonia mainly affects water-dwelling life, where it is exceptionally toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms. Also, on a large scale ammonia helps transport acidic pollutants by forming stable particles such as ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate. Although present in cigarette smoke, the majority of it comes from animal and human waste.

    Carbon Monoxide

    • Cigarette smoke produces carbon monoxide, also produced by car exhausts. Carbon monoxide reacts with other pollutants on a local scale to produce ground level ozone--otherwise known as "smog"--which is harmful to humans and can affect crops. Ground level ozone is created when pollutants react with nitrogen oxides in the sunlight. On a global scale, carbon monoxide isn't assumed to have a significant effect, but never-the-less is a poison which does effect the environment. Cars, and not cigarette smoke, are the largest contributor of carbon monoxide.

    Other Chemicals

    • Each of the thousands of chemicals in cigarette smoke taken alone, as done above, may be produced in greater quantities by things other than cigarettes. But smoke is an ever-present source of a whole host of chemicals that impact local or global environments. In 2007 Gallup.com found that on average 22 percent of the world's population smokes. Considering that fact, it is evident that a lot of chemicals are released into the atmosphere as a result of smoking.

    Production

    • Smoke itself is not the main environmental effect of cigarettes. Much more pollution is produced through the manufacturing process than through the smoke. The first obvious effect is that cigarettes are wrapped in paper, which means many trees are cut down as a result of the cigarette industry each year. According to Green Living Tips.com, a cigarette-making machine uses 3.7 miles of paper an hour. Not only this, nearly 600 million trees are cut down each year to aid drying tobacco. Trees are vital to our environment, and the fact that they are cut down ultimately to be burned is the main effect smoking has on the environment.

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